A Sinking Ship
by c0ntxgious
Summary: Elliot and Olivia get stuck on a cruise ship with a rapist after trying unsuccessfully to catch him. Will they get him? If they do, will something more become of their relationship? A cruise ship is quite romantic. Last chapter up, R&R my lovely boofaces!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Okay, so yeah. I don't own anything at all whatsoever. Except maybe the plot of the story. (:**

_**AN: **__**IMPORTANT TO READ**__**:**_** OK! It is important to know, before you read this story, that Elliot **_**NEVER GOT BACK WITH HIS WIFE **_**after 2006. ****THEY STAYED APART!**

** So anyway: I said I wouldn't post anything before New Year's but this idea just came along! I decided to throw a little bit of a summer vibe into your cold winter veins(: I hope you enjoy this! **

Olivia put one foot forward, and then looked down at the dull, grey-carpeted floor. She looked back up and came face-to-face with a sharp, green-eyed ship assistant.

"Go ahead, ma'am."

Olivia nodded at him, pushed her head back down, and climbed aboard the cruise ship. She walked down the hall and was immersed into a colorful lobby. The lobby was welcoming and had a warm feeling in the atmosphere, with the walls painted dark blue and with bright red-and-yellow patterned carpet. There were doors attached to every wall of the room, leading off to more halls and rooms. At the back of the room, there was a big glass elevator that revealed the faces of excited children, shooting up the floors of the ship. On each side of the elevator was a gold-railed staircase with rich, solid red carpet. Olivia glanced at the top of both staircases. He wasn't there. Where was Elliot?

She pulled out her phone and called four times, but she didn't receive an answer on any of her hopeless calls.

She turned around slowly, standing in the center of the room, her eyes darting around quickly. Where was he? This was worrying her. The ship was leaving soon. Elliot was supposed to be with her, they had to catch Gabriel before the ship left!

Olivia looked around some more, but she still didn't see him. He'd promised that he would be at the top of the staircase. He'd had to board before her because they had split up searching for Gabriel.

When Olivia had looked for Elliot for about ten minutes, she finally approached security and pulled out her badge. "I'm Detective Olivia Benson from the Manhattan Special Victims Unit. My partner and I have great reason to believe that a rapist has boarded your ship-"

"Well, do you know his name? We can get the ship's security to find him, if he's on this boat," the woman interrupted, her big brown eyes getting increasingly wide.

"I know exactly who he is, but my partner and I would prefer to catch him ourselves. He's a very advanced rapist and he doesn't know that we're onto him. He can't know that, he's too smart, he'll get away if he finds out that we know he's on here. My partner and I have to be secretive; the last thing we need is a bunch of people looking for him. He'll know we're onto him and he _will _get away. Anyway, that's not the point. Have you seen my partner anywhere? You'd be able to tell he was a cop," Olivia said.

"No, ma'am," she replied, shaking her head quickly.

Olivia tried not to curse out loud. They couldn't stop the ship from taking off. There were hundreds of people aboard, for one thing. But the main reason they couldn't shut the ship down was that if they did, the brilliant criminal would most likely get away. Olivia and Elliot could _not _take that risk. This case had been open for nearly three months, and Gabriel had raped and stolen from eleven different women. He was really good at getting away, and this was their best chance at getting him. This attempt had to be handled with the utmost tediosity.

Where was Elliot? The ship was due to take off from New York in five minutes!

If Elliot wasn't there, then Olivia would just have to find Gabriel herself, because she couldn't get stuck on this ship finding Gabriel, but she also couldn't get off of the ship knowing that Gabriel would rape women aboard and that he quite possibly would never be caught if she didn't get him this time.

So she set out, jogging up the stairs, her hand sliding along the freezing golden railing as her eyes zoomed in on many different faces, none of which were Gabriel's. Could Gabriel fit in any better? Why did he have to have brown hair and brown eyes and such a subtle profile in general? He looked so normal, like most of the male population. At least 75% of the men on this ship looked very similar to him. Olivia would never be able to find him within five minutes! _Where _was Elliot?

She pulled out her phone and punched in his number once again, listening to the annoying, slow dial and sighing in defeat when she unsurprisingly received no answer for the fifth time. Oh, she was going to be so pissed when she finally found him.

Olivia walked down the halls of the seemingly endless ship, searching the dimly-lit restaurants and spa rooms, the balconies, the movie theaters and the game rooms, looking for Gabriel's face or Elliot's. Olivia knew she'd be able to spot Elliot anywhere, so he couldn't be in any of the places she'd already checked. But there were so many hallways and rooms on this ship! How would she ever find Elliot? And as for Gabriel, she'd never find him! He could have been in the places she'd already searched up and down, but she still wouldn't know because he was so damned subtle! What was she going to do? Why wasn't Elliot answering his phone?

Olivia shuddered when a booming voice came over the cruise's intercom, saying, "The ship is set to take off in two minutes. The ship will be departing in _two_ minutes. I repeat, the ship will be departing in two minutes."

Olivia ran back down to the lobby and her eyes scanned the crowd, the faces becoming a large blur. Her heart sped and a chill went down her spine as she continued to see unfamiliar faces. She glanced at both of the elevators and still saw undistinct, blurry faces. None of them were Elliot's nor Gabriel's.

"The ship is now departing," the voice came over the intercom again.

Olivia looked around, trying not to get too upset. Everybody else looked excited. People were shouting in joy at take-off, children were skipping around happily, everybody was smiling except her.

_Don't be upset,_ Olivia told herself. _Everything is okay, aside from the fact that you're stuck on a cruise without anybody you know other than a serial rapist._

**AN: Thanks so much for reading, please review! Reviews are greatly appreciated and the more I get, the more I write! (:**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: I tried to make this chapter a little longer than the first! I love my reviewers, thank you guys so much! Sister of the Light, you were my first reviewer so thank you so much! I appreciate it very much that you read some of my stories even though you're more into the Felinda fandom. (: Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! Thanks for reading my dorky author's note! :P**

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><p>"Well thank God you finally answered! Where are you? Please tell me you're on this ship," Olivia spat into the phone.<p>

"I am, I am. I accidentally lost my phone somewhere between the entrance of the ship and the stairways, so I was looking for it, but with all the people around it kept getting kicked around and I couldn't find it. I finally found it but the ship was leaving, I...I don't know what to say, I'm sorry," Elliot replied.

Olivia sighed into the phone. "Okay, it's all right. It was an accident. Where are you?"

"I'm downstairs in the big hallway out to the right, close to customer service. We need to ask them if we can get some help getting off of here," he said.

"They're not going to be able to get us off of the ship. They won't turn around for us, since there's all these people on here and it would be ridiculously inconvenient to turn around and drop us back off. Plus, it's already been about thirty minutes. We're a long ways already from shore," Olivia explained.

"But we've got to get off of here! The cruise is running for a month, all of July. We can't hang out on a cruise ship with a criminal for a month. The first stop is the Bahamas, we'll be there within five days. If we can get off there, with Gabriel, then we can get a helicopter sent out to pick us all up there. That means we have three days to catch Gabriel."

"Okay," Elliot said. "We can do that. I'm going to call Cragen and explain all of this to him while you get down here to customer service."

"All right," Olivia agreed, not bothering to add that she was already downstairs.

Olivia walked over to the left hallway, marveling at the beautiful decorations of the ship. She spied Elliot towards the end of the hallway and walked up to him right as he was hanging up the phone.

"Cragen's pissed at me but he agreed about the helicopter thing. We need to talk to customer service," Elliot said.

Olivia nodded and walked a little further down the hallway to customer service. They approached a boring looking woman at the counter.

"Hi," Olivia said, glancing at Elliot.

The woman looked attentive as Olivia explained their predicament to her. She thought about their situation a long time before answering.

"We can get you a room. It's going to be right below the balcony at the very top of the ship, though, because we sold every room we have. You'll go to the sixth and last floor, and go to the end of the hall to the left. It'll be the very last room, next to the small stairway leading to the balcony," she said, handing Olivia and Elliot both a room key.

Olivia smiled. "Thank you. I have one more thing I need to ask. You know how we said that we're catching a rapist that boarded this ship?"

The woman nodded.

"We know his full name. Could we get his room number to arrest him? I asked a woman earlier, but she was talking about security going to get him, and I don't think that's a good idea. He doesn't know we're on this ship and we'd like to catch him ourselves. So could you give us his room number?" Olivia questioned politely.

"Sure," she started. She went to her computer and placed her fingers on the keys after clicking a couple buttons. "What's his name?" she asked.

"Gabriel MacPhisto," Elliot said.

The woman looked confused. "Um...how do you spell that?"

Elliot grinned and spelled it out for her. She typed it in quickly and printed off a paper. She handed the detectives a paper on which was his room number and payment information.

"Thank you," Olivia said as she and Elliot walked away. "Let's go get him. I'll bet he's already in his room," she said.

"Yeah," Elliot agreed.

They got on the elevator and went to the third floor and walked quickly to Gabriel's room. Olivia knocked a couple times and Gabriel opened the door stupidly.

"Hey," Olivia said, pulling out her handcuffs and slapping them around his wrists, reading him is Miranda rights. Olivia tried not to laugh.

They took Gabriel to the ship's security, who locked him up in a huge janitor closet, handcuffing his wrists and ankles as well to a metal shelf pole.

"You'd think it'd be harder to catch a smart serial rapist," Elliot said after they had exited the security area.

"Yeah, normally it would. But not this time, because this time he didn't know we were on the ship. He didn't even know we were on to him, that's why he just opened the door immediately. He didn't think anybody would catch him anytime soon, especially not on a cruise ship," Olivia explained.

Elliot nodded in agreement. "Let's go check out our room for the next five days," he said.

They got in the elevator and pressed the button for the sixth floor. Olivia glanced over at Elliot and kind of grinned. He looked amused.

"What?" he questioned.

Olivia shook her head. "I just...I was pissed when we got stuck on this ship because you'd lost your phone, but...it may not be too bad afterall. I mean, it's like a vacation, right?"

Elliot grinned. "Definitely. We both need one," he said.

The elevator stopped and they climbed off, walking to their room. It was a fairly long walk down the huge hall. When they finally got to the end, Elliot took notice of the small staircase next to their room. Olivia followed him as he walked up the stairs and onto the balcony. They tried to keep their jaws closed as they stared across the nearly empty balcony; most people were still getting settled in their rooms.

The balcony had a huge pool and equally huge hot tub right in the center for everyone, a pool with a slide for kids on the right, and a pool for adults on the left. There were lounge chairs all over the place, and next to the central pool was a small concession stand that sold alcoholic beverages, ice cream, and sodas. Olivia walked to the railing and looked out at the ocean, Elliot following. It felt amazing for Olivia. Her hair blew in the slight wind as she stared across the beautiful blue ocean, the sun shining on the ripples. She finally turned her head and smiled at Elliot.

"Let's check out our room," she said.

Elliot nodded and they walked back down the staircase to their room. Olivia used her room key to open the door and they walked in. They both immediately stared at what was right in front of them: a bed. _One_ bed.

"Figures," Olivia said as she continued to look around the room. She wasn't about to make a big deal about this.

Their room was really nice. It had a nice, spotless bathroom with a huge, amazing bath tub. The bed was a queen sized, with dark blue uber soft blankets and feather pillows. What they both marveled at the most, though, was the sitting room. Next to the bedroom was a sitting room with a couple red chairs on plush blue carpet, sitting in front of a balcony that extended out and looked over the beautiful sea. It was amazing.

Olivia crashed on the bed just to lay down and relax for a minute. She put her arms behind her head and crossed her legs, staring up at the ceiling design. It was blue, like seemingly everything else on this ship. The walls of their bedroom were blue. The ceiling design was a box-like indentation with a gold star in the middle. A ceiling fan extended from the star and blew lightly on Olivia as she laid in the comfy bed. Elliot sat down beside her and eventually ended up laying down too.

"What should we do first?" he asked, turning to look at her.

She turned on her side and looked back at him. "We should...get clothes, some sandals, tooth brushes, tooth paste. You know, the stuff we'll need."

"Do you think they'll sell all that?" Elliot asked.

"Definitely. We'll get clothes and shoes at the souvenir shop, and the other stuff we can buy at the drug store."

"They have one of those?"

"Yeah, I took a glance at a map earlier. There's one on the second floor," Olivia answered.

Elliot nodded and stared at Olivia for a minute. She stared back at him, not sure what was up with this whole staring fest. She now gave him a sort of expectant look, implying it was time to talk if that was what he was going to do. She didn't know why else they'd just be staring at each other like this.

"I'm...sorry, about losing my phone and landing us here. I'm sure you freaked out," he said.

"I did," she said.

He stared at her a little longer.

This was getting pretty intense.

Finally Olivia cracked up, putting her right hand on his arm, laughing really hard.

"Way to freak me out," he spat.

"I'm sorry...You freaked me out, I was just paying you back-"

"I thought you were pissed," he interrupted.

"No," she said between laughter. "I was pissed when you didn't answer your phone...but you already said sorry, El. It's not that big a deal, I'm glad to be here. We're gonna have fun," she said, getting out of the bed and walking around to his side. She grabbed his arm and pulled him up. He stood up, grinning. She put her arm around his shoulder and sidled up to him, looking at him out of the corner of her eye. Elliot, confused at this affection, pretended to be serious, sticking his arm around her waist. Olivia raised an eyebrow at him and he tried not to smile. Her grin got wider and wider until she broke down and laughed again.

"Come on, let's go to the drug store," she said, hugging his shoulders and then walking ahead of him.

Elliot was pretty confused at this side of her, but he liked it...he liked it a lot. Maybe it was just the fact that they were on a cruise together that made her all giggly like this.

Olivia hoped Elliot wasn't freaking out too bad about what she'd just done. It was just some friendly affection, right? Definitely! She'd meant what she'd said about being glad to be here on the cruise. She was excited, especially because she was with Elliot.

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><p><strong>AN: Thanks for reading, guys! I'm super sorry if I got too OOC with Olivia! I tried to keep it semi-realistic but I'm not completely sure if it worked...oh well, this is FanFiction, right? Use your imagination! (: Please give me some reviews! I love you guys, have a good day and thank you for being loyal readers! (:<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: I hope you enjoy this chapter! But I have one more thing to say before you read:**

**To the anonymous flamer who calls herself Ashlyn, I just want you to know this: If you really enjoy it, flame me again. It's not that big of a deal to me because I know I've other readers who like my work a lot. So if it's fun for you then by all means, enjoy yourself. It just brings up my reviews count, so that's always a plus. **

**Anyway, I want to thank everybody who gave my story good reviews! I always appreciate constructive criticism or praise, so thank you guys very much. (:**

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><p>At the drug store, Olivia grabbed a small basket because she knew they'd be buying quite a bit of stuff. Elliot began to pick out stuff he needed, grabbing a tooth brush, a razor, some shaving cream, deodorant, and other necessities. Olivia did the same, throwing it all in the basket, grabbing some Ibuprofen as well, just in case a head ache came along.<p>

When they went to check out, Olivia pulled out her credit card, but Elliot grabbed her hand and pushed it down. She tried to reach back up but he entwined his fingers in hers and grinned knowingly.

"Cragen will reimburse me," Elliot said.

Olivia sighed. "Whatever. If he doesn't, you better not come bitching to me about it," she said.

"I never bitch to you about anything," he replied, chuckling as they walked out of the drug store.

Olivia stopped in her tracks and looked at him for a minute. He turned around and stared at her.

"Kathy never contributes anything, I come home after working for hours and all she does is bitch at me for my hours. Ugh, I feel so sick. This medicine makes me nauseated all the time. You and this job are about all I've got anymore," Olivia recited, mocking him.

Elliot turned back around and continued to walk. Olivia followed him. _Shit_, she thought. She instantly regretted what she'd said. She caught up to him.

"Oh, come on, Elliot. You know I was just j-"

"That was a low blow and you know it," he said, looking at her.

Olivia looked to the side for a minute and then back at him. "All right, yeah, you're right. That was rude. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that."

"I haven't talked about Kathy in five years, since we split," Elliot said.

Olivia nodded. "I know that, I'm sorry. I was just joking, I shouldn't have put in that last part," she said, half-smiling sympathetically, waiting for him to forgive her.

He shook his head and grinned. "It's fine. Let's go to the souvenir shop," he said.

Olivia smiled. "Okay." As they started walking down the hall, Olivia looked over at Elliot, then looked back ahead. "If it makes you feel any better, you and the job are all I've _ever_ had," she said.

Elliot looked over at her for a minute. She glanced at him quickly but looked back forward in fear of making things too awkward. Elliot reached behind her and put his hand on her waist and pulled her closer to him. "You're right. I'm a lucky guy," he said.

She looked at him and smiled. He pulled his arm back. Olivia was glad he did, because she didn't want their situation to get any more weird. She used to tell herself that she couldn't flirt with him like this, but now that she really thought about it, what difference did it make? They'd never _really_ be together anyway, right? And he wasn't married! What was wrong with a little flirting? He was the only man in her life anyway...

When they got to the souvenir shop after what seemed like forever, Olivia walked to the back of the store where the small selection of women's clothes were, and Elliot followed her. She picked out two pairs of shorts, a pair of yoga pants, and a couple medium t-shirts. She searched the shelves for underwear but couldn't find any.

"What are you looking for?" Elliot asked.

"Undies," she said.

"What kind of undies?" he questioned.

"Well, both...I can wear the same bra a couple days, but five? No way," she said.

She looked all around the women's section and didn't see any.

"Liv, over here," Elliot called. He was across the store in a tiny corner sectioned off for underwear. There was hardly a variety at all, and Olivia hoped they had her size. The underwear came in three sizes: small, medium, and large. There wasn't any kind of 5-10 sizing, just the basic small, medium, and large. _Ugh,_ Olivia thought as she pulled a package containing four pairs of underwear down from the shelf. She noticed the cruisline logo on every pair of underwear the store had in stock. She turned them around and realized with embarrassment that she'd grabbed a thong. She pushed it back on the rack and Elliot laughed.

"What? You don't wear those?"

She stared at him. "I...That's not your business!" she said, chuckling.

Elliot grabbed a different package off of the rack and handed it to her. "What about these?" he asked. "They'll cover your ass," he added.

"Yeah, you're cute," she said sarcastically, glaring at him. "My ass is not _that_ big," she said, pointing to the tag that clearly said large.

Elliot looked a little shocked but he grinned and got behind her, pushing her forward by her waist. "I don't know, it looks pretty big to me," he said.

Olivia swatted at his face and made him get back in front of her.

"I'm just kidding; I didn't see the tag," he said, taking the underwear from her and sticking it back on the shelf. He then pulled down a different package and handed it to her. "What about these?" he asked.

"That's better," she said, taking notice of the tag, on which was printed, "Medium."

Next, Olivia walked over to the bras. She stared them over. Didn't top heavy women ever board this ship?

"I seriously don't think any of these will fit..." she said.

Elliot looked at her. "You think they'll be too big?" he asked.

She looked at him silently. "I sure as hell hope they're not too _big!"_ she said.

"They're too small, then?" he asked.

"You know they are!" she said.

"How would I know that?" he inquired.

"You've seen me in a bra before, you know none of these will fit," she said.

"Well it's not like I examined you that _one_ time," he defended himself.

"Yeah you did," Olivia said.

"No I didn't," he refused.

Olivia turned around and stared at him until he started grinning.

"All right, so I did. Why wouldn't I? I mean, you were _right there!_ What, did you expect me not to look?" he confessed.

She laughed and turned back towards the shelf. She finally dug out two of the biggest sizes she could find and threw them in her basket. She wasn't that top heavy! These bras were just made for tiny people, or something!

"Okay, time to go get your stuff," she said.

He nodded and they started across the store to the men's clothing racks.

He quickly grabbed some sweats, a couple pairs of shorts that extended to his knees, and some cruiseline t-shirts. Then he went over to a small rack that had men's underwear. He searched through them until he found a package of blue boxers he thought would fit. Things were so much easier for men.

"We need to buy swimsuits," Elliot pointed out.

"Yeah," Olivia agreed. She searched the store until she found the swimsuits rack.

"Over here, El," she said.

Elliot joined her and quickly picked out some navy blue swim trunks. Olivia matched up a red tankini top with some swim shorts and put them in the basket. Elliot approached her and handed her a different swimsuit. She inspected the light blue bikini with clear sequins and put it back on the rack.

"No thanks," she said.

"Why not? Are you scared?" he asked.

"No," she said.

"Then why won't you get this one?"

"Because I like the other one better," Olivia lied.

"I don't. How about you get this one," Elliot said.

"No."

"You're scared," he said.

Olivia stared at him for a minute. "Fine then, I'll get the blue one!" she said.

Elliot grinned. "Get whichever one you want, I'm just kidding."

"No, I like the blue one. I'll go ahead and get that one," she replied stubbornly, getting the blue bikini back off of the rack and sticking it in her basket.

"Okay then," Elliot said, chuckling. They both walked to the counter to check out.

"I guess you lost your luggage...?" the woman at the counter asked, smiling.

"Um, yeah," Olivia lied, not feeling like explaining their real predicament.

"A lot of people lose their luggage, that's why we have underwear and stuff like that," she said.

Olivia handed the woman her credit card once she'd finished scanning all of the items and sticking them in bags. Elliot stared at her.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"I got a lot more stuff than you did, and you paid for the stuff at the drug store," Olivia replied logically.

"Whatever. But when Cragen doesn't reimburse you later, you better not come bitching to me," Elliot said as the woman handed Olivia her credit card.

The woman behind the register grinned at them. "You guys are darling," she said. She was old, and she seemed like somebody who'd say that.

Olivia looked at her. "What?"

"You guys are adorable, fighting like that. You don't have any kids with you though! Are you celebrating an anniversary? How long have you guys been married?" she asked them.

Elliot and Olivia both looked at her like they'd been shot. "I, uh...We aren't married," Olivia choked out finally. "We work together."

The woman furrowed her eyebrows. She laughed. "Really? I don't talk to my coworkers like that. We don't pick out underwear together either," she said, grinning knowingly. "It's all right, your secret is safe with me," she added, winking one of her wrinkled eyes.

Olivia gulped and nodded, exiting the store, not bothering to correct her any further. She stared at Elliot once they got out.

"We're plenty professional, right?" she asked, worried.

Elliot shook his head. "No, not really," he said.

"Shit, I did not need you to say that," Olivia said.

"But we don't need to be professional, we're on break. Sort of. We already caught the perp, and now we're just hanging out on a cruise. We don't have to be professional."

Olivia nodded. "You're right. It doesn't matter. It's fine...Let's go to the room," she said.

Olivia's mind was still spinning though. She kept thinking about what that woman said. "_I don't talk to my coworkers like that." _Olivia needed to start remembering that Elliot was her partner at work. But was it really that big a deal to just relax and flirt for a couple days? Did it really matter? Nobody had to know! Elliot clearly didn't mind! And they weren't really even _flirting_ at all, right? They were just friends! It would be fine, nobody would care. It would be fine, she was going to do what she felt like doing, and nobody was going to stop her!

But she had to admit that she'd just had the most interesting shopping trip of her life.

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><p><strong>AN: Review, my lovely readers! Thank you! (: <strong>


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: This chapter is super long! I appreciate all the reviews I've been getting and I hope you like this uber-long chapter! (: Happy New Year, by the way!**

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><p>Elliot and Olivia walked back to their bedroom after buying everything they needed, and set their stuff down.<p>

"I'm hungry," Olivia said, looking at Elliot.

"Me too," he agreed. "Let's look at a map and see what's to eat.

Olivia nodded, looking around the room. _There's got to be a map around here somewhere,_ she thought. She pulled open the night stand drawer and spied a brochure/map. She looked over it, Elliot coming up to her shoulder to look at it as well.

"The ones with the green dots are restaurants," she stated.

"Hey, Liv?"

"Hmm?" she asked, looking up from the map.

"What if we just went to the deck and got a hot dog or something at the concession stand? We can hang out or something while the food settles and then we can swim," he suggested.

"Sounds good," Olivia agreed, smiling and pulling out her new clothes and swimsuit. She took the swimsuit off the hanger and grabbed one of her t-shirts and shorts. Elliot did the same.

"I'll change in here and you can change in the bathroom," Olivia said.

Elliot nodded and took his stuff into the bathroom. Olivia pulled on the swimsuit, scared about wearing it and feeling modest.

"Can I come out yet?" Elliot asked.

"Uh, yeah," Olivia said as she started to pull a shirt over her head but Elliot was already looking at her.

"I'm not sure if I want to wear this," she admitted.

"Why not?"

"Just...because. People like me don't wear bikinis."

"People like you?" Elliot questioned.

"I...well, I'm not..."

"You look hot," he said. "You're right, maybe you shouldn't wear it. I don't want you to get stolen," he said.

Olivia chuckled and finished pulling the shirt on. She then put on some shorts.

"Let me wash my face real quick so I don't have make up running down my face when I swim," Olivia said.

Elliot nodded and Olivia disappeared into the bathroom. She came back a minute later. "You ready to go?" Olivia asked.

Elliot kind of stared at her.

"What?" she questioned.

He walked closer to her and touched her face. "You are _really_ pretty," he said, like it was a shock.

She shook her head in confusion. "What do you mean? I just took my make up _off_, Elliot. If anything, I look ugly right now. What are you _talking_ about?"

"I mean, you don't look bad without make up. You still look really pretty," he said.

Olivia furrowed her eyebrows. "Well, did you expect me to look like some kind of monster or something?" she asked, chuckling. "It's just make up, Elliot, it's not like some sort of mask. Not the way I wear it, anyway," she added.

He kind of chuckled. "Well, I just...I don't know. A lot of women aren't pretty without make up."

"By a lot of women you mean Kathy," Olivia said.

"Yeah, her," Elliot replied.

"Well, obviously I'm not Kathy, so..." Olivia's voice trailed off as she pulled open the door and walked out of the room, Elliot following her, holding his room key.

They both walked up to the deck. The sun was going down so the sky was lit up an amazing shade of orange, fading out to yellow the further away it was from the sun. They went to the concession stand and got something to eat. They were incredibly surprised when they discovered that they didn't have to pay for their hot dogs.

"Don't we have to pay?" Olivia asked the big man at the counter.

The man looked at her like she was crazy. "Didn't you read about this when you paid for the cruise? Everything on the cruise is free, aside from souvenirs and extra stuff like that. Meals and activities all come free with the price that you pay to get on the cruise," he said.

Olivia grinned. "Oh. I...I knew that. I just didn't know if this stand qualified, I thought I heard it didn't. Thanks," she said, walking away, still feeling embarrassed.

"Wow, everything's free. Awesome," Elliot commented.

Olivia nodded. They walked over to lounge chairs and sat down, both starting to eat. They'd gotten on the cruise around 10:00 a.m., and now it was 7:45. They hadn't eaten in hours. After they both finished their hot dogs and fries, Elliot glanced over at Olivia.

"I'll be right back," he said, getting up.

A few minutes later, Elliot appeared with a beer in his left hand and a frozen drink in his other hand. He gave Olivia the tall frozen drink and she grinned thankfully, taking a gulp and then immediately squeezing her temples from brain freeze.

Elliot chuckled at her momentary stupidity.

"What?"

"You started guzzling a frozen drink. You must really be in need of some alcohol," he said.

"I...kind of am," she said, smiling.

"Why? Because being on a cruise ship is so stressing?" he inquired, smirking.

Olivia removed her shirt and laid down on the lounge chair. "Hmm," she moaned, wiping her eyes. "The cruise part isn't stressing, it's being with you," she said.

Elliot laid down as well. "That was low," he said.

Olivia looked over at him. Then she got up, holding her drink, and sat at the bottom of his lounge chair. "_That_," she started, "was a joke." She grinned. Then she picked the small umbrella on a toothpick out of her drink and held it up for him to see. She turned it around in her fingers and slowly poked the bottom of Elliot's left foot. She drew a little invisible heart with it and tickled him to death. He kept twitching. Olivia couldn't stop laughing.

"Stop!" he shouted playfully. "I'm seriously afraid I'm going to kick you."

"You know you want to," she said, continuing to tickle him with the toothpick, trying to see if he would really kick her or if he would try to keep himself composed.

He curled his toes up, trying to avoid thinking about the ticklish feeling on his sensitive feet. Finally, when he couldn't take it anymore and he was sure he was going to kick Olivia in the face, he pushed his legs around her body, straddling her and sitting straight up. He pulled her in with his legs and plucked the toothpick right out of her hands. She reached up to get it but he held it up high so she couldn't get it. She kept leaning forward until she almost fell on Elliot. He held her off by putting his left hand on her bare stomach, holding the toothpick up in the air. He finally tossed it. It went flying overboard, floating off in the wind and becoming invisible to the two of them.

Olivia tried getting up but Elliot pulled her closer with his legs. He wrapped his arms around her stomach and stared her down.

"What's up with you?" he asked playfully. "Since when do you act like this, all giggly? Are you drunk? I didn't know Olivia Benson could get smashed that easily," he said.

Olivia grinned at him. "I'm not smashed," she said. "I'm completely sober. You just never see me outside of work. I'm not that tense all the time, you know," she said. "And what about yourself? You're just as bad!" she pointed out.

"I'm not that tense all the time either!" he said.

"Well then we should hang out some more outside of work. I like you better like this," she said.

"I like you better like this too," Elliot agreed.

Olivia extracted herself from his grip.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Hot tub. The one for adults. The kids' pool is over there," she said jokingly, pointing to the left.

"I probably should go over there, you're right. But um, I probably shouldn't leave you alone, don't you think? With that swimsuit on, someone just might try to pull a move. That wouldn't be too good, now, would it?"

Olivia smiled. "I beg to differ," she said.

They hung out in the hot tub for a little while, just relaxing, playing around, being carefree. Olivia felt better than she'd felt in a long time.

After a little while, it got dark. The concession stand closed and everyone started leaving. Soon, Elliot and Olivia were nearly alone. The guy from the concession stand came up to them when they were in the pool.

"The deck and pool is closed for tonight," he said.

Olivia nodded at him. "Okay. We'll be out," she said. She climbed out of the pool with Elliot and they went over to a small shelf and got a towel. Olivia noticed the guy from the concession stand leaving, and she and Elliot were now alone on the deck.

"Hey, El?"

"Hmm?" he grunted.

"Are you tired?"

"Nope."

"Who's going to know if we stay out just a little bit longer?" she asked, a grin flashing on her face.

Elliot noticed her eyes lighting up mischeviously in the darkness, the sequins on her swimsuit illuminating her chocolate brown pupils. "Good idea," he replied, throwing his towel on the ground.

"I'm cold though. I'm going to get in the hot tub," she said, looking up at the starry sky, noticing the breeze.

"Me too," Elliot said.

They got back in the hot tub and relaxed a little longer. After a while of silence, Olivia felt kind of awkward. She wanted to talk about _something_.

Olivia was about to open her mouth to speak when they both heard a cell phone ringing from the lounge chair. Elliot got out of the hot tub quickly, knowing that it was his ringtone beeping. He picked up the phone and Olivia tried to listen to what he was saying.

"Hello?" he said. There was silence for a minute. "I...I can't. I won't be back in town for at least five or six more days," he said in exasperation. Olivia paid close attention. Who was he talking to? "Because I'm on a cruise ship with Olivia," he murmured. "What? No, I...I didn't come for a vacation. I was catching a suspect with Olivia and we ended up on the ship," he spat. Oh, so that's who he was talking to, Olivia realized. "Even if I was, it's not your business. You can't keep tabs on me; we aren't married." Suddenly Elliot's voice raised. "I don't care!" he yelled. Then his voice lowered again. "Look, that's not the point. Never mind that. Can I have the kids next weekend instead?" He was quiet a minute. "That's ridiculous. Another month is a long time to wait. They're my kids too." Olivia tried to listen well enough to hear Kathy too, but Elliot was too far away with the phone for her to make out what she was saying. "I hardly ever get to see them, Kathy. Please just let me have them next weekend." There was silence for a long moment that got longer and longer. Finally Elliot brought the phone down from his ear and pressed a button. He dropped the phone back on the lounge chair and grabbed his towel. He dried off a little, and then went and looked out over the water, his hands tightly gripping the gold railing of the deck.

Olivia climbed out of the hot tub and grabbed the towel she'd had earlier. She wrapped it around herself and tucked in the corner so it would stay up without her having to hold it. She walked up to where Elliot was, leaning against the railing of the ship, staring at the starry sky. She approached him from behind, walking up next to him and leaning against the railing as well, looking at the ocean rather than Elliot for a minute. She finally turned around and looked at him. She gently lifted herself up onto the railing and sat on it, turning a little bit to the side so she could look at him more easily.

"What was that all about?" she asked quietly.

Elliot half-smiled, but it was a bitter, exasperated smile. "I'll talk about it once you get down from there. It's worrying me to death," he said, taking her hand.

She looked at him a little stubbornly, not moving.

"Come on, get down," he said, finally wrapping his arm around her back and pulling her down. Once he got her down, he didn't let go of her. He continued to hold her, embracing her.

She rubbed his back comfortingly for a minute and finally pulled back. She tried to look at him but he didn't make eye contact with her. Instead, he turned around and looked back out over the sea. Olivia put her hand on his shoulder, silently begging him to look back at her.

"Hey," she said gently, noticing his fondness towards her and his sadness about his recent telephone conversation. "Are you okay?"

Elliot glanced at her but quickly looked back over the railing. "Not really," he admitted. "I never get to see my kids. At least it seems like that. I only see them once a month, and I'm missing my weekend with them. I won't see them for another month."

Olivia stared at him with sympathy. "What kind of custody do you have?"

"Kathy's the custodial parent. I have visitation."

Olivia pulled on his shoulder, forcing him to look at her. "Then she _has_ to let you see them every other weekend, El. That's what visitation is," she said.

"I...I know that," he said.

"Then why won't you do anything about it?" Olivia questioned him.

Elliot shook his head. "I don't know. I just don't want to fight with Kathy, and a part of me would feel guilty if I took the kids every other weekend like I'm allowed to do," he confessed.

"Why would you feel guilty?" she asked.

"Because...I can't be near as good of a parent as Kathy can be," he said, looking her in the eyes now. "I work all the time. I'm never around for the kids anyway. I hate when they're at my house and I get called in for a case late at night. They always get pissed off. It's like...it's like if I enforced my custody rights, then my kids would have more time without a parent at all than they have now. If I have them all the time, then they'll be left alone all the time, because I'm not able to be around much anyway." Elliot looked at Olivia for a minute. "Do you get what I'm saying, Liv?" he asked.

Olivia nodded. "I know what you mean," she replied. She got quiet and looked at him for a while with sorrow and understanding in her eyes. Finally, she gently squeezed his shoulder. "Let's go inside," she said.

He nodded at her and followed her back into their room.

"I'm going to take a shower," he said, digging out a pair of knee-length shorts he'd bought and some boxers. Then he went in the bathroom and closed the door. Olivia stared at the closed bathroom door for a minute until she heard the shower start. She then picked up Elliot's phone and found Kathy's number in his contacts list. She was going to straighten this out.

"Hello?" Kathy said.

"Hi," Olivia replied.

"Oh, um...Hey, Olivia," she said, shock evident in her voice.

"Hey. How are you doing, Kathy?" Olivia asked.

Kathy was quiet for a minute. "I'm...good, I guess. How about you?"

"I'm fine. Listen, I wanted to talk to you about Elliot...and the kids," Olivia said.

"Okay..." Kathy replied reluctantly.

"I know that Elliot only sees the kids once a month, and this weekend was when he was supposed to see them. He's going to miss it because I got him stuck on this cruise ship. He couldn't find me, and that's why we got stuck here," Olivia lied. "This is all my fault, and I'm really sorry about that, Kathy. But Elliot doesn't deserve to have to pay for that, you know? He's really bummed out, he's been silent since your phone conversation. He really misses his kids. And you know, technically, he's allowed to see them every other weekend. That's what visitation is. But he doesn't ask to see them every weekend because he has to work all the time and he doesn't have time to see them every weekend. So, you know, what if he just saw them next weekend instead of this weekend? He's really upset that he's going to have to wait another month to see them. Please don't blame Elliot for being gone and not being able to get them this weekend, because it's my fault. I got us stuck here. Could Elliot please have the kids next weekend instead?" Olivia finally finished her lecture, crossing her fingers.

Kathy was silent for a very long moment. "I...I guess. Yeah. You're right. I didn't know everything you just told me. I'll tell Elliot that he can have the kids next weekend," she said, sighing quietly.

"Actually, he's, uh, in the shower," Olivia started. "But I'll tell him if you want," she added.

"Okay, that's fine I guess," Kathy said.

"All right. Bye," Olivia said.

"Oh, wait, Olivia," Kathy started. "Um...thank you for calling. You helped me see things differently. Thanks," she said.

"No problem," Olivia said, smiling slightly. "I just wanted to make sure your kids are happy," she said.

"Thanks, Olivia. Bye," Kathy finished, hanging up.

As if on cue, Elliot walked out of the bathroom just a few seconds later. He was shirtless, like usual when he slept, and Olivia tried not to marvel at him as he came out, steam emanating from the bathroom and drops of water running down his body.

Olivia stood up quickly and dug in her bag for something to wear to bed. She pulled out what she'd need and went to the door of the bathroom. "I'm going to take a shower real quick too," she said. She really was "real quick." She got in the shower, washed her hair, shaved so fast she was scared she'd cut herself, and got out. She got dressed quickly and brushed her hair, then went back in the room. She dropped her clothes in a dirty clothes bag and looked at Elliot. He made eye contact with her and didn't break it for a minute. She sat down next to him, on the left side of the bed.

"I...I did something for you. I meant for it to be a favor, but I've been thinking about it more and I don't know if you'll appreciate it or not," Olivia admitted.

Elliot looked over at her. "What did you do?"

She looked up at him. "I called Kathy, and I told her that you were upset that you didn't get to see your kids. I told her that she should let you see them because it was my fault that we got stuck on this ship and she shouldn't blame you. She said that she would let you see them next weekend instead of this weekend. She said she was sorry about everything and that you were right," Olivia finished.

Elliot continued looking at her for a minute, and then closed his eyes for a second, smiling. He opened his eyes. "Thank you," he said, staring her down gratefully. "_Why_ would I not appreciate that?" he asked.

She shook her head. "I...I don't know. It's not my business at all, for one thing," she said.

"Liv, I don't mind you cutting in. I wouldn't have been able to convince her myself, so I'm really glad that you did. But I'd never expect that of you," he sighed.

She nodded and smiled at him. "I'm kind of tired," she said.

"Me too," he agreed. He reached up and pulled the chain to turn off the light, careful not to turn off the fan. Olivia laid down on her side, awkwardly finding herself all of two inches away from Elliot, her knee hitting his leg when she laid down. She quickly pulled her leg back, trying not to freak out. This was weird. A big part of her enjoyed it, but it was weird nevertheless. She didn't know how to react. She didn't know if Elliot wanted her to say that this was weird and she should get up, or if he wanted her to just stay there like she was, or if he wanted her to get even closer to him. She didn't know how to react, so she just stayed silent, trying desperately to make her mind shut down and allow her to go to sleep but failing at that task miserably.

After several minutes of silence, Elliot reached out to Olivia, setting his hand on her stomach above her belly button.

"Olivia, I appreciate everything that you do for me. And even if you mess up, I still appreciate everything you do. I know you have good intentions," he said.

Olivia stayed quiet for a minute. "Of course I do...I care about you more than you'll ever understand. I'd never do something wrong to you on purpose," she replied.

Elliot scooted closer to Olivia, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into his chest. She relaxed, all the tension in her body releasing as she collapsed onto his chest, her nose nestled in his neck. "I think that I do understand, because I'm the same way," he confessed. He held her close for a minute, and then said, "Um...Just tell me if this gets too weird for you."

Olivia laughed out loud. "This is fine."

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><p><strong>AN: Pretty please review for me! I worked really<strong>** hard on this chapter. I kept coming up with these scenes and then deleting them, one after another after another. I fixed about 10 billion things, trying to make this as good as I can make it. So please tell me what you thought of this chapter!**

** ~Allison Wisdom**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Okay, guys! This may have been a stupid thing of me but I changed my pen name to alliecat8697. I did this because that's what I go by on Twitter and I wanted Twitter & FanFiction to have my same pen names. I decided on alliecat8697 because it's a lot easier to remember than zoe20098697! Spread the word, my name is changed! (: Anyway, read on, I hope you enjoy!**

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><p>Olivia sat awake in bed, contemplating on whether or not to wake Elliot up. It was nearing 10:30 a.m., and she'd been staring at him sleep for three hours. She was getting sick of this. She reached over and put her hand on his cheek. She patted his cheek a few times, blowing on his face.<p>

"Elliot, wake up."

His eyelids fluttered but didn't open. Olivia sighed in exasperation. She blew on his face again until he partially opened his eyes.

"Let's wake up," she said, running her fingers over his lips. He closed his eyes again.

She laid back down, feeling hopeless at this task. She poked his chest under the blanket. He didn't respond very much. He just sighed and yawned. She kissed his nose and left her lips there. He finally opened his eyes a little bit. She stared at him wide eyed with a funky face. He finally woke up all the way, laughing at her. She blew on him again.

"_What_ are you doing?" he asked, grinning and sitting up.

"Waking you up! I have been watching you sleep for three hours. It's kind of interesting, but three hours? Let's _go!"_

"Well, did you ever think of just shaking my shoulder or something? You could have woken me up like a human," he said.

"That would have been infinitely less interesting," Olivia commented.

Elliot smiled. "All right, all right. Are you hungry? Let's go get breakfast," he said.

Olivia nodded and smiled back at him, getting up and throwing Elliot's clothes to him.

The restaurant they went to was a brunch buffet. Elliot was finished filling up his plate first so he found a seat and waved Olivia over to where he was sitting. He was shocked to see, when Olivia got to the table, that her plate was packed just as high with food as his.

"There's no way you'll eat all that," Elliot bet.

Olivia shook her head stubbornly. "Yes I will. If I wasn't going to eat it all, then I wouldn't have gotten it all," she explained.

"Right," Elliot said sarcastically, grinning at her.

Olivia didn't even eat a third of what she'd gotten. Elliot cleared his plate but didn't want to go back for more. He was full already.

"I'm stuffed," Olivia said, holding her stomach.

Elliot looked at her plate. "You hardly made a dent," he pointed out.

Olivia glared at him. "You can say it."

"I told you so," he said triumphantly.

She chuckled and shook her head. "What should we do today?"

"Parasailing," Elliot joked.

"That doesn't actually sound _too_ bad," Olivia commented thoughtfully.

"Don't get any ideas," he replied.

She grinned. "Why? Are you scared of parasailing?"

"No," he started. "I just didn't think you would want to."

"I'm _definitely_ not scared to parasail," Olivia reassured him.

"Congrats. What if we went to a movie, then spa, and then...a bar or something?" Elliot suggested. He wanted to change the subject because it just really was not in his best interest to go parasailing. It was not his thing. He'd never been before, but somehow it didn't seem like something he would like very much.

Olivia grinned knowingly, but decided to finally drop the subject of parasailing. "Sounds good," she said.

When they got to the area where the theatres were, they had to decide which movie they wanted to see. They decided on 'Just Go With It.' They enjoyed the movie and afterwards went straight to the spa.

Upon arriving, they quickly realized that it wasn't very crowded. For one thing, there were about five different spas on the ship. For another thing, this wasn't the typical time to be at the spa; most people were eating lunch or swimming. They went in and were greeted by a few small men who smiled at them.

"Together?" one small man asked Olivia.

Olivia glanced at Elliot, not understanding what the guy had meant by "together." She didn't want to make a fool of herself or embarrass Elliot, so she pretended that she did understand what he'd meant.

"Um, yes. Together," she said, shrugging at Elliot.

The small man nodded and led them to a room. He took them by the shoulders and took them to different beds in the small room. He then left for a moment so they could strip.

"Ah, shit," Olivia said. "Why did I say we were together? I should have seen this coming."

Elliot chuckled nervously. "Okay, just, um...Turn around. We'll turn our backs to each other and get ready. The towels are over there," he said, pointing at a shelf. Olivia grabbed a white towel and so did Elliot. They turned their backs to each other and stripped. Olivia felt so weird, so embarrassed, and so nervous.

"I'm dressed. Are you dressed?" Elliot asked.

"Uh...hold on," she said, putting her arms in front of her boobs and holding them up. Ugh, this was embarrassing. All she had on was a towel over her bottom half. "Yeah, I'm...fine...I guess," she said.

Elliot turned around. He chuckled.

Olivia finally looked around the room a lot. The two beds were fairly close together; if Olivia wanted to push Elliot off of his bed during the spa then she could. But she wouldn't, of course.

"Turn away for a minute," she instructed Elliot. He did as she told him to. "Okay," she said. When he turned back around, she was laying down on the bed on her stomach, her head resting on her arms.

There was a knock at the door. Elliot opened it and the man came in. "Are you ready?" he asked.

Elliot nodded and gave him a quick smile. One other man came in with him and went to Olivia, while the guy who'd greeted them went to tend to Elliot.

The man doing Olivia's spa treatment started out by dimming the lights in the room. Then he flipped some sort of switch that released mist into the room, making it hydrated and humid. He lit a couple candles and then both men started their work. They massaged lotion into Elliot and Olivia's pores, did hot rock treatment, and massaged them thoroughly. They rubbed all sorts of beady substances into their skin. Olivia felt so relaxed for the first time in a long time. She didn't feel tense, she didn't even feel all that weird about Elliot practically seeing her naked. She'd be on this ship for at least three or four more days, so she might as well just let go of her tension and awkwardness. Why not just have fun? This was the best opportunity she was going to have in a long time to have any fun! She needed to enjoy this! She _had_ to enjoy this! It would be her only chance for a while. She was going to just let go now. She wouldn't be completely open, but she was going to be comfortable and natural and do what she felt like doing. She wasn't going to worry about her relationship with Elliot or anything else. She needed to relax so that was what she was going to do.

After the spa men finished massaging Elliot and Olivia, they left again to let them get changed back into their clothes.

"I feel relaxed," Elliot said.

"Me too. That was...amazing..." Olivia agreed.

Elliot laughed.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing, just...the way you're...you know," he said, staring at her.

Olivia was holding her boobs up again. "Well, it's not like there's anything else I can do!" she exclaimed.

He grinned. "I know. Okay, let's get changed. Let's turn around," he said, facing the wall as she did the same. They changed back into their clothes and exited the spa room.

"Thanks, guys," Elliot said as they left, acknowledging the personnel. The men smiled at him and nodded.

"That was an interesting experience. Remind me next time not to say we're together," Olivia said to Elliot as they were leaving.

"I don't think I will," he commented.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she inquired.

He looked down at her. "It probably means exactly what you think it means."

"Why are you getting wordy with me?" she asked, grinning.

Elliot chuckled as they continued down the ship's halls, on the way to a bar. Their spa had lasted nearly three and a half hours. It was now 5:45.

"I needed that spa really bad," Olivia said to Elliot.

"Me too. I think they may have worked out some kinks I've had since I was in the Marines," he joked.

Olivia looked at him thoughtfully even though she knew he was joking. "Did you work out _all the time?"_

He nodded. "Yeah. It was really exhausting."

"I'm glad I never did anything like that. The worst thing I've been through is the police academy," she said. "And maybe some of the beatings I got from my mother," she added with a chuckle.

"It wasn't _that_ bad," Elliot said.

"Ugh. I'd be scarred for life."

"Well I went through it and I turned out all right," he replied, grinning.

"That makes one of us," Olivia said.

Elliot stared her down until she smiled. "Joking."

He became serious again though. "But back to your mother...the beatings. Were you bad?"

Olivia shook her head, half-smiling bitterly. "Not really. We just didn't get along. It's not like I can blame her."

"Yeah you can," Elliot said seriously. "If she was going to always feel like that then she shouldn't have kept you."

Olivia looked up at him and glared, her eyes seemingly turning into black bullets and piercing into his soul.

Elliot instantly regretted what he'd said. He was quiet for a minute. Olivia's eyes were widened as she stared at him, clearly hurt deeply. Her eyes were watering slightly but she refused to even come close to crying. She finally looked down and nodded her head sadly, smiling in a bitter and sorrowful way.

Elliot stopped walking and grabbed Olivia's shoulder and turned her around so he could look her in the eyes. When he finally made eye contact with her, he just felt more guilty. The look in her eyes could only be thought of as sad and hurt.

"Olivia, that came out completely wrong. I...I didn't mean that at all," he said.

She nodded but didn't reply and still looked upset.

"You know I didn't mean that, right?" he asked her, looking into her eyes sympathetically.

She closed her eyes for a short second and then continued to look at him. "I...I'd like to believe that, but I don't understand what else you could have meant. What _did_ you mean, Elliot?"

"I...I just meant that she had the option to give you up and she didn't, so she should have treated you right," he said.

Olivia kind of stared at him, still upset. Then she nodded and turned back around and started walking. She was still upset enough that Elliot could tell.

"Liv, I don't even know what I meant," he said, grabbing her arm again so she'd look at him. "I don't know what I meant. But I definitely didn't mean that your mom shouldn't have kept you. It came out completely wrong. I'm a dumb ass. I don't know what I meant for it to sound like. I'm an idiot, okay? I'm sorry I said that. You know I didn't mean that," he said.

Olivia looked at him for a minute longer and nodded. "I know you didn't. I know it just came out wrong. I'm not mad at you, Elliot. I know you didn't mean to say it like that. It just really hurt, you know?" she asked, giving him a slight smile.

He nodded. "I know. I would never wish that she hadn't kept you, Olivia. I'm so glad you're here with me. You're a great-"

"Elliot, calm down," Olivia said, grinning at him. She put her hands on his shoulders and made eye contact with him. "You're rambling. I don't want to talk about this anymore," she said. "I...want to go to the bar," she finished, smiling.

Elliot laughed, hugged her quickly, and started walking again, trying to keep up with Olivia, who was a little overzealous about getting to the bar.

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><p><em><strong><span>Super long author's note that I'm SO sorry about, you don't have to read it.<span>**_

**AN: Review for me! Thanks for reading guys, y'all are amazing. (: (Yes, I'm a little country girl from a rural town in Texas. Yes, I say y'all all the time. Yes, I sound like one of the hicks from the movies. Phahaha I hope y'all don't mind!) XD **

**By the way I have one more thing to say, you don't have to read this if you don't want!**

**Has anyone been on Twitter? There was a FanFiction writer named InfinitelyBlue on here (InfinitelyyBlue on twitter) and she got her fiance to tell everybody she died. I'm not sure if you guys heard about this or not, but a lot of people were really upset about this. Y'all deserve the truth though. She isn't dead. She just said that because she wanted a break from twitter. It's really sad for us and ridiculous. I'm sorry about all this & this long author's note.**

**BTW follow me on Twitter, alliecat8697.**

**Thanks! (:**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: Super sorry for the slow update! I gave you a fairly long chapter to make up for it! (: Not as long as Ch. 4, but getting there. Lol. Enjoy(: **

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><p>When they got to the bar, Olivia sat down and ordered a Long Island Iced Tea, while Elliot ordered a Dry Martini. Olivia looked over at Elliot.<p>

"All right, I'm just going to warn you that I'm going to be completely knocked out after finishing just one of these things. I'm getting a fair dosage of Rum, Gin, Vodka, and Tequila all in this one "iced tea." I'll be out after one, even though I'll probably have two," she warned him.

Elliot laughed. "I won't get drunk. I'll make sure you don't do anything too stupid."

Olivia grinned. "Thanks," she said, picking up her drink and starting to sip it.

A live band was playing very loudly, and everywhere people were dancing and singing, having fun and doing whatever they pleased, because the majority of them were drunk. Olivia's drink went away quickly, and by the time it was gone, she was acting very silly due to a drunken state of mind. Elliot observed her and laughed. They got up and listened to the music for awhile, and finally Elliot decided they should leave. Olivia was pretty drunk. She was somewhat conscious of what she was doing and things like that, but she definitely wasn't in the greatest shape.

"Hey, Liv. Let's go," Elliot said.

"I...What? We're having so much fun though!" she said.

He chuckled. "Come on. You're drunk, and it's..." he paused, looking at his watch. "Nearly 11:00."

She giggled drunkenly. "So?"

"Come on, let's go," he said.

Olivia finally relented and followed him to their hotel room. It seemed like a long walk for Elliot when he was half-carrying Olivia. When they got there, he sat down on the bed and took off his shoes and shirt, preparing for bed. Olivia did the same. She got in bed and got under the covers, giggling the whole time. Elliot got in bed with her, grinning at how hilarious she was when she was drunk.

She smiled at him, her eyes glassy. The alcohol was finally having its full effect on her, and she was now feeling really tired. She started falling asleep, but she scooted closer to Elliot. She felt like kissing him, but she knew somewhere in her still semi-effective conscience that she was very drunk. She desperately wanted to just kiss him and tell him she loved him, but she knew she was drunk and she would regret it the next day. She couldn't do this. If she still felt the same the next day, then maybe she'd act on her feelings, but not right now. This wasn't the time. Alcohol was making her silly and was affecting her judgement in every way possible. She knew she'd always loved him, but she would never even consider acting on it unless she was drunk.

"Olivia, I know you're drunk, but I want to tell you something, okay? I know you're still somewhat conscious," Elliot said, grinning at her knowingly.

She nodded and laughed.

"I'm so sorry about what I said today about your mom. I didn't mean to say it like that and I know we've already talked about it but I want you to know that I'd never want that and it just came out wrong."

"I know that, Elliot," Olivia said, not actually sounding drunk this time. She sounded serious like since he was talking about something so seriously, she was able to sound semi-sober enough to listen to him well and make it a serious conversation.

"I know you do. But I also know that it hurt you really bad. I saw the look in your eyes, Liv. I'm so sorry that I did that. You know that I wasn't serious and I'm so glad you're here with me. It was really wrong to say that. I know we've gone over this but I just wanted to tell you again that I'm really sorry."

"It's okay, El," she replied. "It did hurt, you're right. But it's okay. I'm over it, and you should be too. It didn't hurt near as bad as some of the cases we've had to work that hit so close to home. Don't worry about it anymore. I'm fine, it's all right. I'm over it completely," she said, smiling at him sincerely.

Elliot was glad that she was still conscious enough to maintain a decent conversation although he could still see that she was drunk in her eyes. Her pupils were wide and she was shaky. She also still had a sort of silly look on her face. Elliot was grateful, though, that she was somewhat understanding everything he was saying. She may not be able to remember their trip to the bar in the morning, but she would remember their conversation.

Before Elliot knew it, Olivia was sound asleep. She slept peacefully on his chest, while he ran his fingers gently through her hair. Soon after, he fell asleep as well.

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><p>The next morning, Elliot was awake long before Olivia, since he hadn't consumed half as much alcohol the night before as she had. He took a long shower, read a map and brochure about the island of the Bahamas that they were going to, which was Exuma, and then finally just watched Olivia sleep for a little while. Finally, at 10:00, he decided it was time to get her up. He shook her gently, deciding to grant her the peace she hadn't given him the morning before. She deserved it, he knew, because she was going to be feeling not-so-great. Elliot knew she'd be pretty hung over.<p>

After Elliot gently shook her shoulder, Olivia's eyelids fluttered. She started opening her eyes but winced from her head ache and shut them again completely. Elliot noticed that her facial expression still didn't go back to normal after its contortion from her pain.

"Olivia, get up," he said, shaking her shoulder. She didn't move. He pushed her hair out of her face and ran his fingers through it, stroking her head gently. She opened her eyes but was still wincing. He stood up and got a water bottle and some Ibuprofen, and then sat back down on the bed. He lifted up her head and put it in his lap while her eyelids continued to flutter. She finally opened her eyes all the way and squinted.

"My head hurts," she said immediately in a voice somewhat hoarse from sleeping.

Elliot grinned and handed her the water and Ibuprofen. She swallowed it quickly and handed him the bottle. He set it on the night stand and massaged Olivia's temples. She shut her eyes again, relaxing. Then Elliot ran his fingers through her hair a little more and put his arms down on her arms, entwining his fingers into hers, setting his hands on top of her hands. They sat there for a minute, Olivia trying not to think about her head ache and slight nausea. She put her hands on her stomach.

"Are you going to be sick?" Elliot asked.

"No, I'm not that nauseous. My stomach is a little ick, but it's my head," she said. "My mouth tastes really bad," she added.

"Drink some more water, that helps a lot," he said, handing her the bottle of water again. She gulped it down, not near as eager for it due to her want for water, but more for her want to get rid of her sick feeling.

"Elliot," Olivia said, sticking her nose into his arm.

"Hmm?" he murmured, stroking her cheek with his thumb.

"Please do _not_ let me get smashed again on this boat. Hangovers mixed with the movement of the boat is...not a pleasant feeling," she said.

Elliot chuckled. "I won't let you get smashed again. You need to eat a big, greasy breakfast." He stood up and went to turn on the light.

"Don't you _dare_ turn that light on, Elliot."

"Why?" he questioned, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Hungover equals sensitivity to light," she spat.

"Okay. I'm going to go get you something to eat, all right?" he said. "Drink another bottle of water." He grabbed a bottle out of the fridge and handed it to her, then left to go get them some breakfast.

When he got back, Olivia was still in bed, massaging her forehead with her thumbs. The water bottle he'd given her was empty next to her.

"Feeling any better?" he asked.

"Somewhat. The Ibuprofen helped, I guess the water did too. Still not great," she admitted.

Elliot nodded and handed her a to-go box. She opened it, pulled out a fork, and started eating her eggs, bacon, sausage, and other breakfast food. She found that after her meal, she really did feel a lot better. The nausea had gone away after she'd had a couple bottles of water, and now her head was getting there. She was still feeling somewhat sickly, but she thought she'd be okay by the time she got a shower and left the room.

"Did I vomit on you last night?" she asked Elliot.

He laughed. "No. You're not as bad as you think when you're drunk. You're just silly."

Olivia grinned at him.

He suddenly got serious again, putting down his link of sausage that he was working on. "Do you, um, remember...anything...from last night?" he asked.

She chuckled, wiping her eyes. "I remember our conversation before I fell asleep, if that's what you mean."

Elliot smiled with a hint of embarrassment, nodding at her. "That's good."

"Yep," she replied shortly, smiling at him. "I feel a lot better now."

"Good," he said. "What do you want to do today?" he asked.

"Let me see the map," Olivia said, pulling the covers up a little and reaching out as Elliot handed her the brochure-like map. He watched as she scanned it, her eyes stopping on spots. "We could...ice skate, rock climb, gamble," she suggested. Then she furrowed her eyebrows. "Elliot, it says on the side that we're stopping today at an island. I thought we weren't stopping for five days. It's only been three," she said.

"We're stopping at a small one or maybe even a couple but they're _really small_. Cragen said it would be easier for him to get us when we get to Exuma," Elliot explained.

"Oh," Olivia replied. "So do you know when we'll stop?"

"It should be around 2:00 today," he replied.

She nodded and looked back at the map. "Okay, so what do you want to do?"

Elliot thought for a minute. "What if we went ice skating, then rock climbing? By the time we're done with that it'll be at least two. Then we could get off on the island, go swimming or whatever we want to do there. After that we could...I don't know...when we leave the island it'll be late or at least in the evening, so we could watch a movie in the pool theater-"

"What's that?" Olivia interrupted, furrowing her eyebrows.

"It's what it sounds like. One of the pools on the far right of the deck has a big screen. It's just for adults," he explained.

She nodded, silently telling him to continue.

"And after that we could go to the casino maybe?" he suggested.

"Sounds great," she said. "We are _not_ betting any big money though."

Elliot chuckled and nodded in agreement.

Olivia stood up and grabbed some clothing out of her shopping bag. "I'm going to take a shower," she said, going into the bathroom. Before she got in, she scrubbed her face even though she didn't have any make up on. She got in and let the hot water spray onto her face and soak her from head to toe. The mist of the shower surrounded her and seeped into her pores, the hydration cleansing her and gently removing the icky feeling of alcohol from her body. When she washed her hair, she massaged the water into her head, her head ache decreasing by a lot in pain. After her shower was over, Olivia found that she could feel almost no signs of the hang over she had woken up with.

"Well I feel great," she said when she emerged from the bathroom wearing a light blue shirt and a pair of cargos she'd picked up at the store.

"That's good," Elliot said. "Me too."

They were both dressed and ready so Olivia motioned towards the door and they left.

When they got to the ice rink on the third floor lobby, they put on their skates and got ready to have fun.

"Have you skated before?" Elliot asked.

Olivia nodded. "I used to go all the time at Rockafellar. Have you?"

"Yeah, but it's been awhile."

"It's been awhile for me too," she replied, stepping on the ice carefully. Elliot got on after her, holding onto the railing like she had. Olivia slowly moved her feet. It had been at least five or six years since she'd ice skated. She had been pretty good at it; she'd gone a lot and she had learned how to skate backwards pretty well too. Of course, it had been fairly easy to learn how to ice skate backwards. She hadn't learned any tricks or anything, but she remembered going to Rockafellar a lot to ice skate, simply because it was a fun and cheap exercise.

It took them both a little while to get off of the wall, but once they did, they both skated pretty fast and with ease. They skated side by side, talking as they flew past little kids on the railing. Olivia noticed several couples skating together, holding hands, and wished she could do that with Elliot. She decided against it, not sure what he'd think about it. It didn't matter though, because Olivia soon felt Elliot's hand slide into hers. She grinned, thinking that Elliot may have noticed her staring at the couples, and turned around so she could skate backwards and look at him. She held both of his hands now, skating backwards faster than him so their skates wouldn't collide. She pulled him along with her.

"Impressive," Elliot said, referring to her ability to skate backwards.

She grinned and continued pulling him along, crossing her feet tediously and occasionally pulling her hair out of her face. Her eyes watered but she ignored it. She finally let go of Elliot for a minute and skated forwards, trailing her feet along and making thin lines on the ice. Elliot sped up to catch up with her and he grabbed her hand again. After skating for a few minutes, they stopped and stood by the railing.

"You're good," Elliot commented.

Olivia grinned. "So are you."

"I skate like everybody else. You know how to do it backwards," he pointed out.

She shook her head, smiling. "That doesn't mean anything. It's just as easy as going forwards; it just hurts your ankles a little more," she explained.

"It is _not_ easy," he said.

"Have you ever tried?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Elliot stared at her for a minute. "No," he finally confessed.

Olivia laughed. "Well, that's why you think it's hard!" She grabbed his waist and turned him around.

"No way, Liv," he said, chuckling.

"Yes way. You're going to figure this out," she retorted.

She held on to his waist but gave him room to skate, her arms outstretched. She reached in front of him and pushed his thighs in. "Stick your butt out," she said.

He chuckled. "No."

"Do it!" she spat, grinning. He obeyed finally. She pulled on his waist, lowering her hands to his hips when that didn't work. He still was not quite understanding how to do this. "You have to kind of lean forward," she said quietly. He leaned forward and Olivia saw it coming before he ever started wobbling. She skated in front of him and caught him under the arms before he fell. One of her hands ended up on his butt when she caught him. She laughed so loud that people started staring at her.

"You can't lean forward that much!" she said between laughing, helping him stand up, not removing her hand from his butt. She knew he'd like it anyway. _Oh, Olivia. You're bad,_ she thought. "You just kind of lean forward enough that the skates will slide better."

Elliot grinned at her, his face red from embarrassment. "Why are you holding onto my ass?" he asked.

She patted his butt. "You know you like it," she said, facing him and smiling knowingly. She moved her hand back up to his back.

"You're right, maybe I do," he said, reaching behind him and pushing her hand back down.

She laughed and skated to the side of him. She stood next to him and started to demonstrate how to skate backwards. "You have to shimmy, you know?"

He chuckled. "No, I don't know. Show me," he said, crossing his arms over his chest and staring at her expectantly.

She shook her head. "You're really going to make me, aren't you?"

"I sure am," he agreed.

She grinned. "Fine then." She started shaking her butt, wiggling enough that her skates started moving backwards. Elliot was cracking up. She started going faster and faster until she was going backwards at a quick pace. Then she skated a circle around him and put her hand gently on his hip. "Your turn," she said.

He stared at her.

"Do it," she ordered, smiling.

He did it subtly, kind of moving his arms a little.

"You can't half-ass this, El. _Do it!" _she said.

He rolled his eyes and finally started shaking his butt, breaking it down this time. Before long, he found himself skating backwards without having to look like he was doing some sort of weird ice dance.

Olivia smiled and clapped. "Finally," she said.

He grinned, skating backwards for another minute and then grabbing her hand and skating with her. They skated for about twenty more minutes, and then left the rink.

_Well, that was different than most skating trips,_ Olivia thought.

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><p><strong>AN: I had so much fun writing this chapter. I love ice skating, I'm currently taking lessons. ^^^That's how I learned to ice skate backwards lol. I was out there dancing around, people looking at me like I was crazy. Haha. <strong>

**Well review! Thanks for reading, guys! I appreciate it so much, if I get a lot of review I will update quicker!**


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: Thank you guys so much for the excellent reviews y'all gave me last time! I'm going ice skating today, I'm way excited lol. I appreciate it very much! I hope you like this chapter. It's pretty long. (: **

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><p>After leaving the ice rink, Elliot and Olivia went to the fourth floor to go rock climbing. They walked all the way down the fourth floor's left hallways until they reached the very end of the ship. They walked into a quiet gym, where people stared at them as they went to the back of the room and left through a door connecting to another room. The next room was quiet too, because there were only a few people in there. The second they walked in, Olivia stared at an incredibly huge rock climbing structure in front of her. The ceiling to the room they were in was really high up. She could barely even see it.<p>

A young man who looked like an athlete approached them. He noticed Olivia looking at the huge structure.

"It extends all the way to the deck of the ship. The builders sectioned off this one small part of the ship just for rock climbing," he said, motioning towards the huge glass windows from the floor to ceiling, out of which they could see the thrashing waves of the ocean. "So do you want to get started?" the guy asked, smiling at Elliot and Olivia. They nodded. "You can choose whichever side of the rock you want to climb," he said. "The hardest is the furthest to the right over there, whereas the easiest is the left, here next to me. The middle, obviously, is just intermediate."

The guy handed them both gear for their climb. They wore it like some sort of diaper; Olivia couldn't help but laugh as she put it on.

"You're going to do the hardest with me, right, Liv?" Elliot asked, grinning at her jokingly.

She rolled her eyes and followed him to the hard side of the rock. She stayed on his left side, making sure he got it at least a little bit harder than her.

She realized for the first time _why_ this side was so much harder. The rocks were decreased by a lot in quantity, and they were a lot smaller and spread further apart as well. This looked hard, and she knew Elliot would be good at it. _Damn it_, she thought. She noticed that there weren't any other climbers in there with them; it was just her, Elliot, and one other worker aside from the one who had been servicing them. The room was quiet.

The guy who'd been helping them walked over to them and attached rubber-like ropes to each of their diaper-like suits. "Go for it," he said.

Elliot approached the rock and attached himself to it within an instant. Olivia did the same.

Surprisingly enough, Elliot didn't climb way faster than her. They climbed at about the same speed, although Elliot was slightly better. She knew why he wasn't as much better than her as she had thought he would be. It was because even though Elliot was a lot more athletic and muscular, Olivia had much better tactics and was more creative. She knew how to reach the rocks better than him because she had weird techniques. When Elliot found a rock he couldn't reach, he would look for another one or climb over to the side so he could reach a different one. When Olivia couldn't reach a rock, on the other hand, she would find a way to reach it. She would bend in some weird way, or she'd find an odd way to jump and reach them. That technique was risky and always made her stomach drop because she was so high up, but since she knew that she couldn't fall, she went ahead and used it.

Elliot was surprised that Olivia was nearly tied with him as well. She was muscular for a woman, but he was quite obviously way stronger than her and faster. But he, too, realized that it was because she had the brilliant ability to be creative when it came to rock climbing.

Olivia suddenly found herself stuck. There weren't any rocks close to her in the least. There were two above her, but they were really high up. She reached for them but couldn't get them. She had been tied with Elliot, but now he was just a little bit higher than her. She knew what she could do, but it would be really hard for her. Elliot was watching her now, seeing her awkward situation. She knew what she was going to do. But she could only pray she didn't fall. She was flexible so this could work. She pulled her left leg up from the rock it was on and pushed it up high, setting her heel on the rock that her left hand was on. She found herself so close to her own knee that she could kiss it. Elliot was watching her intently, nervous for her. She was about to do it. It would be a quick movement and she would either fail miserably or be incredibly victorious. Her right foot, which was still below her, was pressed carefully against the rock. She pushed off of it with all of her might, using her left heel, which was on the rock her hand was on, to pull her in. She flung her arms above her, jumping and reaching for the rocks that had been so high above her. Her left hand immediately grasped a plastic rock tightly, but her whole right side shook nervously as she reached desperately for the rock on her right side. Elliot got too nervous and reached up to her because she was now above him. He put his hand on her thigh, well, partially her butt, for support. Right as he did this, Olivia reached the rock. She looked down at him while he continued to hold her up, nervous for her. He climbed up a little and looked at her. She let out a shaky breath and grinned at him.

"You know you liked it," he said.

Olivia laughed. "You're right, maybe I did," she quoted him.

He smiled. "That was risky," he commented. "It kind of freaked me out."

Olivia grinned. "And why is that?"

"I didn't want you to get too ahead of me," he said.

Olivia glared at him jokingly.

"Just kidding. I was genuinely worried about _you," _he said, getting back to climbing. They were tied exactly now, so Olivia started climbing too so that she could stay up with him or beat him out. They were about halfway through. They continued climbing competitively. Elliot once reached up and couldn't grab a rock, and, as competitive as Olivia was getting, she grabbed his hand and pulled him up to it. He grinned after this, thanking her and continuing on his determined climb.

They were both surprised when Olivia actually won. She got to the top of the rock first, looking down at Elliot, who wasn't very far below her. He got stuck again when he was almost up, so Olivia helped him, figuring it didn't matter since she'd won. She grabbed both of his hands and pulled him up so he was right next to her.

"You must feel cool," he said.

She smiled at him. "I do."

He shook his head. "Well, don't. I didn't try."

She opened her mouth but didn't speak. Then she shook her head. "No way," she said, not believing him.

"I'm just kidding. I worked my ass off and you still won," he said, chuckling.

She grinned, wiping her sweaty eyes. She wasn't dripping sweat or anything; she didn't do that. But her face was moist and shiny, her bronze skin looking incredibly soft. Elliot wanted to touch it, to kiss it.

Olivia looked out the window next to them, staring out at the water. When she looked back at Elliot, she was greeted with a look from him that could only be described as serious. He searched her eyes, widening his own and leaning a little closer to her. He caught Olivia by surprise when he kissed her lightly and gently. He did it quickly, pulled back, looked at her for a minute longer, and started back down the rock. He pushed off of it with his feet, the rubber rope extending a little more every time until he was on the ground. Olivia looked down at him as she started to do the same thing.

"You did that to me and then you just..." her voice trailed off as she finally reached the ground too. She decided not to talk about it. She was confused. She didn't know what to do. She hadn't expected that at all, they were on the top of a rock, of all places. She hadn't expected it at first, but when she had turned around, she knew it was going to happen. Well, she hadn't known that he was going to _kiss _her, but she knew he was being somewhat romantic and she knew he'd do _something_. She just turned around from looking out of the window and there he was, staring at her like that, seriously and deeply. She longed for more. She wanted him to kiss her again. But she didn't know if he'd made a mistake or if he hadn't known what he was doing. He may not have wanted that. He may freak out if she tried to talk about it or kiss him again. She just wasn't going to say anything. It would be fine. She was going to pretend it had never happened.

"Liv? Olivia," Elliot said, gently touching her shoulder, trying to get her to pay attention. She had sort of zoned out and wasn't listening to him. He knew it was because she was confused about his kissing her. He couldn't help it. He knew he was going to do it at some point because he loved her and it would happen, but he couldn't quite understand why he'd chosen to do it right then when they were at the top of a rock. He just did it because he had really wanted to right then. She had looked so beautiful, her skin looked soft and made him want to kiss it, so he did. He was just going to drop this though.

"The ship just stopped," Olivia told him. "I guess we're at the island now."

Elliot nodded, hoping things between them weren't going to be awkward now that he'd done that.

Olivia, without intent, told him the answer to his hopes by grinning at him. "Let's go!" she said excitedly.

He grinned at her. "What do you want to do on the island?" he asked her as they started walking to the exit of the ship.

"What is there to do?" she asked.

"We can go horseback riding, parasailing, we could go on the zipline, or go in a cable car above the island on a tour. Or we could just swim, whatever you want to do," he said.

"Oh! That reminds me," Olivia started, "That we need to get our swimsuits out of our room," she said.

Elliot nodded, continuing down the hall with her to the elevator, clicking on the 6th floor button instead of the 1st floor now that he knew they needed to get their swimsuits. When they got in their room, Olivia wore her swimsuit under her clothes, whereas Elliot just wore his swim trunks with a shirt.

"There's also a place where you can ride on banana boats and go on wet bikes," he said as they left their room and once again started towards the exit.

"This is going to be so much fun," Olivia replied. "How do you know all this stuff?" she inquired.

"This morning when you were sleeping, I read a brochure about this island and also about Exuma."

"What's Exuma?" she asked.

"It's the island of the Bahamas that we're going to," he replied.

"Oh," she said. "Well, what do you want to do first?" she asked, referring back to the island they were currently stopped at.

"Horseback riding sound okay?" he suggested.

She nodded.

When they got off the ship, Olivia's eyes widened as she marveled at the beautiful island. They weren't anywhere near the bahamas yet, she knew, but the island was still very pretty. The water was such a pretty color of blue, and there was white, sandy beaches everywhere she looked.

They walked down the dock until they reached the island, stepping into the sand.

"Do you have a map?" Olivia asked, looking around at all the other people that had recently gotten off of the ship.

"Yeah," Elliot said, pulling out the map. He held one side and she held the other as they searched it so they'd know where to go for horseback riding.

"Look," Olivia said, pointing at an icon. "That's where it is. We aren't very far, we just have to go down that trail into the trees," she said, pointing at a trail leading into a forest of all different tropical trees.

Elliot nodded and they started walking down the trail.

"Have you ridden horses a lot?" Elliot asked.

Olivia partially squinted. "Um, nope. Never," she said.

"You've never ridden a horse?" Elliot questioned incredulously.

"No, El. When would I have gotten the chance to do that? I grew up in New York and stayed in New York. I've been out of state, but I never went horseback riding," she explained.

"Yeah, I know what you mean, I guess," he said, nodding.

When they arrived at the stables, they were greeted by an elderly man with white hair and a thick mustache. "Hi," he said, leading them to some horses next to a fence. He pulled saddles off of the fence they were hanging on and put them on both of the horses, then attached the harnesses and other riding gear.

"Are you guys going to need someone to lead you on your ride, or do you want to do it yourself? If you do it yourself, you just have to know how to get back here. All you have to do is go back on the trail you used to get here," he said.

"Yeah, that's fine. We don't need a lead," Elliot said.

The man smiled. "Okay. Just grab the harness to lead the horses in whatever direction you need them to go. Click your heels to go faster, but it's probably not safe to speed to a gallop unless you're really experienced with these horses." After explaining the rules, the man disappeared and left them to go where they wanted. Olivia approached a white horse that the man had put a saddle on. She stuck her right foot in the foot holster and put her hand on the saddle. She thought about trying to get on the horse but knew she wouldn't be able to do it. She glanced back at Elliot, hinting at him to come help her.

He grinned at her. "Do you need something?" he asked.

Olivia shook her head. "No."

He laughed and went up to her. He grabbed her waist and she pushed herself up, trying to get on the horse. He helped lift her up as she flung her leg over the horse's big body. She chuckled when she'd finally gotten on the horse successfully. Elliot got on his brown horse pretty easily; Olivia could tell he'd done it before. He clicked his feet against the horse and it started walking. Olivia did the same, deciding to follow his lead because he clearly understood horses better than she did.

Their horses started down a trail into the forest of the island. After just a few minutes of riding through the tropical forest, they ended up in a clearing of tall grasses outlooking the ocean. Olivia loved the weather; the wind blew her hair back and kept it out of her face. The horses walked down a ramp and out of the clearing, onto a deserted, white, sandy beach. It was so beautiful. As the horses trotted along on the beach, Olivia stared at Elliot. She wanted to ask him about what he'd done earlier. She wanted to know why he'd kissed her. She felt like this was a good time, well, as good of a time as it could get, to talk about something like this. She might as well give it a shot.

"Elliot?" she said kind of quietly.

He looked over at her. "Hm?"

She stared at him for a minute. "I'm not sure if you want to talk about it, but, ah..."

Elliot knew what she was trying to ask about. He just wasn't sure what to say. He squinted at her, his eyebrows hanging heavily over his eyes in the sun. "Should I not have done that?" he asked, looking forward now.

"No, you should have...if that's what you wanted to do," she said.

"I did want to," he said, "Or I wouldn't have done it." He had definitely wanted to kiss her. He had wanted it badly. He'd given in to his temptation. He just knew that she looked beautiful at that moment, and he had wanted to kiss her, so he had. He wasn't sure if it was wrong or not, but he had acted on his feelings. He hadn't thought about it much; he'd just noticed her beauty and kissed her because he had felt like it. He wished he'd thought about it harder, but he had enjoyed it a lot and part of him was very glad he had kissed her. He hoped it could happen again at some point.

Olivia nodded as they continued walking along the sandy beach. She wanted Elliot. She was glad he had wanted to kiss her, because she had enjoyed it. But was this right? Could she do this? She worked with him! Could she be with him, if he wanted that? Could she hide whatever was going on between them from the rest of their squad? She wanted this even more with every second that she thought about it, but she wasn't sure if she could carry it out and have a responsible, adult relationship with him. But she wanted him, and he obviously somewhat wanted her too...

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><p><strong>AN: Thanks for reading, guys, I appreciate it! Who's ready for EO to happen soon? Review and tell me! XD Have a good day! **


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: Anonymous reviewer: "A sinking ship is right," "A sinking ship indeed," "Blah," "You should've left it all deleted," "So this story is really just about them hooking up. I get it. Still don't like it though. Note to self: avoid this story at all costs." -If you've been trying to avoid it, then why do you keep reviewing? **

** Thanks for bringing my review count up.**

** Love you too, babe. **

After their horseback riding along the white beaches was over, Elliot and Olivia decided to go on a cable car above the island. They waited in a small line, but it didn't take long. They'd somehow ended up on the side of the island opposite everybody else. The other people on their cruise had stayed on one side and they'd gone to the other. Once they climbed in the cable car, they immediately started going at an average pace across the top of the island. Olivia loved heights, whereas Elliot was a little more nervous. He didn't mind it too much, because the island was so pretty, but he wasn't near as adventurous as Olivia.

The car was _very_ high up. Olivia felt like she could touch the clouds, if they were touchable. They went through trees, over rivers. The wind blew strongly, but the car wasn't actually going that fast. Olivia leaned out of the car, marveling at the island and inspecting everything with wide eyes. Elliot did the same, but he glanced at Olivia in about five second intervals. She finally looked back at him and grinned. A thought crossed her mind. Should she do it? Elliot had done it, so why couldn't she? She leaned in, putting her hands on his face and neck, and kissed him. She did it softly and lightly, but with more confidence than when Elliot had kissed her. He kissed her back, enjoying it. She pulled back a minute, stared at him, grinned, and kissed him again. When she pulled back for the second time, Elliot was smiling at her.

They didn't have any words to say. There was nothing they needed to say. They just knew to be silent, because it was just one of those times where they could be in silent ecstasy. They both continued staring out over the island, the white beaches and tropical trees. The sun was beginning to set, but it had just started to. The sun was lit up but was no longer blinding or extremely bright like it had been earlier. It was so peaceful.

The whole cable car ride lasted about twenty minutes. When they got back, they walked out to a beach that was one of the prettiest that Olivia had seen. Well, perhaps they all looked very similar, but she just knew that it was amazing. She felt so blessed. She had originally been upset about getting stuck on the cruise ship trying to catch a perp, but she was now very glad that it had happened. She was getting an island/cruise vacation with Elliot, and the island she was currently on was the most beautiful place she'd ever been in her life. What made it so much better was that she was with Elliot.

The beach they were on was completely deserted. Nobody was there because everyone was on different beaches. Olivia was glad nobody was there; it was quiet, peaceful, and they were alone. The sun was beginning to set, but it was fairly light outside still.

"Hey, look," Elliot said, touching Olivia's shoulder. She looked to where he was pointing and her eyes rested on a stand next to a zipline. The zipline went out into the ocean but not very far, just out to where the cable ended by a wall. They'd have the option to jump off at any time though.

Olivia grinned. She pulled off her clothes so she was just in her swimsuit, and Elliot pulled off his shirt. She looked at him for a second, and then took off towards the zipline. He ran too, catching up to her. It soon turned into a competitive race which Elliot won, but only by a little. When they got there, Olivia ran up the stairs to the stand and stood up there, looking out at the ocean. She glanced back at Elliot, and then reached up and gripped the zipline tightly. She got ready to go. Elliot came up behind her.

"I'm going to push you, okay?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

He put his hands on her bare stomach and pushed her gently as she lifted her feet up and went flying above the water on the zipline. She zipped through the air, staring over the ocean. She looked down, realizing she had to let go quickly. She was suddenly scared.

"Liv, let go!"

"I'm scared!" she yelled.

"I don't care! Let go!" Elliot spat.

She looked back at him and finally dropped into the water. He stared at the water for a minute until she came up, grinning at him. "Your turn!" she yelled so he could hear her.

Elliot waited for the handle to come back to him, and then he grabbed it. He jumped off of the stand, swinging out into the ocean. He waited until he thought he was close to where Olivia was before he let go. He thrashed into the water and looked for Olivia. He suddenly felt her hands on his shoulders, pushing him down. He went down a little, but she wasn't quite strong enough. He grinned at her and started to swim back. She followed him, swimming underwater like him because it was faster. When underwater, they both kept their eyes open. The water was clear and it was easy for them to see each other. Olivia grinned at him as he swam towards her, reaching for her torso. She pushed back, her hair flowing forward in the water and surrounding her face. They both quickly went up for air and went back underwater. They came up when they could touch the ground, but water was still up to their chests.

"I wish we could stay on the ship longer. I don't want to go back to New York," Olivia said.

"Me neither. Not yet, anyway," Elliot agreed.

"Oh well. Let's enjoy it while we're here," she said, turning and looking at him.

"You want to _really_ enjoy it?" he asked, knowing what she was hinting towards. He grinned at her.

She smiled back knowingly. "Mhmm."

He approached her, gently setting his hands on her hips and kissing her. He kissed her with much more confidence than he had the past two times, because he knew that she wanted it. She set one hand on the back of his neck and the other on his chest, kissing him passionately, sure of herself. Elliot moved one of his hands down to her swimsuit bottom, sticking his thumb slightly into her bottom. Olivia tried not to shiver from his touch. She pulled back for air, pushing her cheek against his for a minute. She kissed him again lightly, and then started walking closer to the beach, holding Elliot's hand as he followed her. He followed her until they were in shallow water. They laid down on the sand. Elliot kissed her again immediately, laying back down when she straddled him and was on top of him.

"Is this okay?" she whispered, leaning into him, her face all of two inches away from his.

Elliot nodded nervously. "I want this."

She half-smiled at him, looking up and making sure nobody was around. Sure enough, the beach was still deserted completely. She leaned down and kissed him again as he untied her swimsuit top.

By the time they had both gotten dressed, it was time to go. When they stood up, Elliot brushed sand off of Olivia's back and handed her the shirt she'd been wearing. She pulled it on over her her swimsuit and grinned at him. He kissed her quickly and lightly as they started walking back to the ship quickly. By the time they got there, almost everybody was already back onboard. They got on quickly and the ship took off from the island only minutes after the boarded.

"Hey, El?"

Elliot glanced over at Olivia. "Hm?"

"Instead of going to the pool, could we just go somewhere else? I don't really want to swim because we just swam for a long time," she said.

Elliot nodded. "Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. What do you want to do?"

"What if we went to that club? It's kind of close to the lobby. They just play music and dance. Some people drink, but I'm definitely not going to be doing that after the hangover I had this morning," Olivia suggested, chuckling. "But you could drink," she added.

He shook his head. "No way. You looked like shit this morning-"

"Thanks," she said, staring at him.

He chuckled. "You know what I meant."

She rolled her eyes and grinned. "So do you want to go there, or...? We could just hang out in the room for awhile too. Either way."

"Let's go to the club for awhile," Elliot confirmed.

She nodded as they started toward the lobby. When they got there, they saw that it actually wasn't too crowded. There were enough people to make a commotion, but it wasn't packed. A lot of people had gone to their rooms for awhile or went to sleep because they'd tired themselves out on the island.

In the club, purple and blue lights shined down on everyone, and the music was loud. The stage took up a large area, and had so many lights flashing on it that Olivia could barely see the singers. There were men singers and women as well; right now they women were singing a party song. It was a modern song, unlike the music they listened to. They didn't mind though. Olivia jumped into the crowd and started dancing, Elliot following her lead.

They danced for a long time, not necessarily together the whole time though. Olivia kept getting hit on, but she put off every single guy because she knew now that there was at least _something_ going on between her and Elliot. She knew there was enough going on that he'd be pissed if she flirted with a bunch of other drunk guys. So she ignored them all or nodded and went to another side of the room. One of the guys was drunkenly crazy enough to follow her around. Elliot noticed this and approached them.

"No, thanks. Stop following me," Olivia said, not trying to be polite anymore. This guy was a little too persistant.

Elliot came up to Olivia and put his arm around her shoulder. He pulled her close to him and looked at the guy. "Leave." That was all Elliot had to say. The guy was clearly intimidated enough to back off. Elliot knew that a lot of his persistence was because he was just too drunk to realize that Olivia was putting him off.

Olivia glanced up at him. "Are you ready to leave?" she asked.

He nodded, smiling down at her. But right as they started to leave, the band started playing a slow song.

"This is our last song of the night," the male singer said.

Olivia looked back at the stage. Then she pulled Elliot back closer to the stage with her. They avoided the crowd, though, sticking out. It was like a group of penguins that walked together, but the two of them avoided the huddle.

Elliot pulled Olivia close to him, setting his hand on her lower back. She leaned into him and then pulled back a little to look him in the eyes. She concentrated.

_ "'Till now, I always got by on my own. I never really cared until I met you. And now it chills me to the bone. How do I get you alone?" _

She thought about the meaning of the lyrics. She'd felt that way for so long when Elliot had been with Kathy. She just wanted to spend time with him; she just wanted to have the chance to tell him her feelings. Then, when he split up with her, she'd been too cowardly still to tell him. She was so grateful that things were working out now, and she had him to herself. He loved her back. Or he at least felt something back. She wasn't sure if he loved her. She knew she loved him though.

Elliot held Olivia close, dancing with her until the end of the song. After it was over, he pulled back and looked at her for a minute. Then he kissed her lightly and they started to leave the room.

**AN: Okay, I'm super sorry about this chapter being pretty short! I haven't had ANY time to update or write because school is keeping me so busy. Freshman year, *sigh.* Homework all the time. That's why I also will apologize if there were any mistakes or anything, I didn't have time to proofread this at all! Sorry guys! I would appreciate some reviews, it'll make me write faster, I promise! (: **


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: Thanks, guys, for the wonderful reviews, favorites, and alerts! I appreciate that so much! I will go ahead and tell you that this chapter is super short! I'm so sorry about that, but that also means that I will be updating faster than usual! There's a reason this is short too! Thanks for reading, sorry about the shortness!**

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><p>The next day, Elliot woke up fairly early. He had kind of planned to wake up early because he knew that today<p>

was the day they were stopping on Exuma island of the Bahamas, but he hadn't planned on getting up _this_ early. Still, whenever he told himself that he was going to get up early, he always just woke up early. He knew how to make himself get up without an alarm clock, which was really a great life skill, but his ability had its cons. He could tell himself to get up early and he would, but he could never tell the exact time when he would get up. He would wake up early, but it could be anywhere from 4:30 to 7:00. All he knew was that he'd wake up early. This morning, he had gotten up at 6:00.

Elliot climbed out of bed, yawning and stretching. He walked into the sitting room and then out onto the balcony, greeted by a lovely blast of warm wind and the smell of the ocean. The sun was barely coming up; the sky was a purple color with a gentle orange haze spread across the middle of the horizon. Elliot stared out across the gently splashing waves, so glad to be here that he never wanted to leave. Then an idea popped into his mind. He knew it was a ridiculous thought, so he tried desperately to shove it out of his mind, but the thought's appeal weakened him and made him incapable of control. What if they stayed on this cruise? What if they told Cragen that something happened and they couldn't get off of Exuma? They could spend an entire month on this cruise! They could get a perfect break from being cops and dealing with the stuff that nobody wanted to deal with! They could just relax...They could be happy all the time. It was only one month...It would just be like a sort of long vacation!

Elliot's mind was clouded with the incredibly attractive idea of going to the spa all the time with Olivia, and making her happy because he loved her and she deserved it more than anybody else. He could stop on islands with her and go on horseback rides like the one they'd went on the day before all the time. They could simply have fun together, and never have to deal with the misery of listening to victims or putting themselves in danger trying to catch perps.

What could they tell Cragen, though? What could they say? Elliot thought about this for a long while. Finally, a thought popped into his mind. They could say that Gabriel got away on the ship and they had to continue looking for him. They could say he was either on Exuma or he was on the ship somewhere, and they'd find him and get on the helicopter on the next island. They could just continue to stall until the cruise was over! They could say that they couldn't find him on the first island, then on the next one they could say there wasn't anywhere to land a helicopter...They could just stall for awhile and stay on this peaceful cruise, and take a break from their stressing jobs! Elliot definitely would never want to give up being a cop, and he knew that Olivia wouldn't either, but a month long break sounded amazing. It was just a month; it was just enough time to give them some rest. Then they'd return to New York and have renewed energy, and they'd be much better cops than they had been before. Or maybe...Maybe they could just tell Cragen the truth! That couldn't hurt too bad, right? Maybe if they just explained to him that it was only a month, and they were both exhausted, and they'd be much better at their jobs when they got back. They could just say that they needed-

"Is everything okay?"

Elliot's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Olivia's voice, which was lowered and gentle. He turned around and looked at her.

"Uh...Yeah. You're awake..." he said, surprised.

"Yeah. I've been standing here a while," she said, slightly smiling.

"Did I wake you up?"

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry," he said, wrapping his arms around her and pressing a kiss to her forehead, and then pulling back, keeping his arm around her waist.

"It's fine, I'm glad to be awake," she replied, smiling. She then stared at him seriously for a moment. "So something's on your mind. What is it?"

He shook his head. "I just...I've been really happy here," he started.

Olivia nodded, urging him to continue.

"I almost...don't want to leave." He looked at her, seeing if her facial expression was approving. He couldn't tell, until she replied.

"I feel the same way." She stared at him, waiting for him to continue.

"So, um...I was just thinking about our options. And you know, this ship is only going around for a month..."

"So maybe we could take off for a month," Olivia finished for him.

He nodded.

"What would we tell Cragen?" she asked.

"Well, I was just thinking about that. I thought maybe we could just stall...Or we could tell him the truth. We could just tell him that we need a break."

Olivia nodded. "I want to stay here. You're right. We do need a break. But...I'm not sure if we should."

Elliot looked at her. "Why?"

"I don't know...I'm just not sure about it," she said.

He nodded. "Okay. Let's talk about it later. We need to get ready to go to Exuma," he said, smiling.

"When do we stop there?" she asked.

"At about 9:00. So we can get ready and get something to eat, and then it will be time to go. We're staying on the island for five days or so. We should probably get some more clothes," he pointed out.

Olivia nodded. "Yeah. You want to get a shower? I took one last night before I went to bed," she said.

"Okay," Elliot said, walking away from the balcony and back into their room. He grabbed some clothes out of his bag and went to the bathroom.

Olivia got ready while he was gone, thinking about whether or not they should stay on the ship. She loved it here, and a month on this ship sounded amazing, but did they really want to do this? Did they really want to abandon their jobs for a month? She wasn't sure what to do, but she knew she had to make her decision soon. They had to make a decision by 9:00, when they stopped on Exuma. Should they stay or should they go?

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><p><strong>AN: Okay, I know this chapter was a bit of a bummer! But I made it short because I need y'all to help me out! Do y'all want them to stay on the ship together for a month and relax, and continue to have fun, or do y'all want them to go back to New York soon? Give me your vote! Leave me a review! This is in y'all's hands now, so help me out! I literally can't write more till I have y'all's opinions about this story! thanks!<strong>


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: Well, the vote was pretty conflicted! But I kind of expected that to happen, so I've come up with something that I sincerely hope will please everybody! But watch out guys, I'll just warn you, I'm probably going to throw you a surprise.(:**

When Elliot got out of the shower, Olivia approached him.

"Hey," he greeted her.

She smiled. "I've been thinking more about whether or not we should stay," she said.

Elliot smiled back at her, awaiting her decision.

"I...I don't think we should. We've gotten a good vacation, and it's been a lot of fun. But a month is longer than we're acting like it is. A month is a long time. Cragen needs us."

Elliot nodded. "I've been thinking about it too, and I think you're right."

"But," Olivia interjected.

His eyes snapped up to meet hers.

"I don't want to leave _today_. I think we should stall at least until tomorrow night maybe, if that idea sounds all right with you," she said.

Elliot grinned. "Yeah, that's perfect. So we'll just really enjoy today and tomorrow. How do you think we should deal with Cragen, though? What should we tell him?"

Olivia stared at him thoughtfully. "We should just do the thing where we tell him that Gabriel got away and we couldn't find him. Then tomorrow night, we'll still be on Exuma, and we can just call Cragen and tell him we caught Gabe," she suggested.

He nodded. "Yeah, that would be the best way to play it."

She stared at him for a minute, getting lost in his eyes, and then finally snapped out of her zone. "We should buy some more clothes for today. We can wash some more clothes at the hut that we'll stay in, but we need some for today. I'm wearing dirty clothes right now," she said.

"Me too. It's gross," Elliot agreed, starting towards the door.

They went to the same shop where they'd bought their clothes before. Elliot purchased sandals, a t-shirt, and some shorts. Olivia got some flip flops, a cheap new swimsuit, and a sand dollar-themed, casual slip to go over her swimsuit.

When they got back to their room, they changed into their new clothes and packed up their bags. Carrying their bags with them, they went to a huge restaurant for breakfast. Olvia ordered French toast and ate a lot; she hadn't any idea why, but she was starving. Elliot was pretty shocked at how much she ate. Elliot, on the other hand, didn't eat very much. He had a light bowl of cereal with some fruit and yogurt. By the time they had finished eating breakfast, it was 9:15, and the ship had stopped by Exuma.

"I'm excited. Supposedly this is the prettiest island of the Bahamas," Olivia said to Elliot as they started towards the exit of the ship.

"Yeah, that's what I've heard too. I read the map this morning. I was reading about all the stuff to do. I don't think we'll get bored, we'll definitely take up any time we need to. There's all sorts of parks and reefs and stuff like that. There's lots of nature tours. I think it'll be a lot of fun," he said.

They got off on the island, keeping their stuff with them. Olivia sighed in astonishment as she stared at the island surrounding them. It was a lot prettier than the island they had previously stopped on. It was by far the most beautiful place she'd ever been in her life. The water was crystal clear; Olivia could see all the way to the bottom. She spotted a sea turtle on the beach next to the ship. She nudged Elliot and pointed at it, and then grinned.

Elliot, also marveling at the beauty of the island, pulled out his map and started to look at it. Before long, he found the way to get to the hut they were staying in. They walked down a small trail into a forest, and then stopped at their destination. There was another trail leading into a small village of huts in which all the people from their ship were staying. Their hut was at the very back of the village, which had the con of making them walk a far way, but had an advantage that made the walk worth it. Their hut was backed up to a couple trees, which were the only thing blocking a clearing on a white, sandy beach. Olivia walked through the trees and there she was; right there on the beach, not far from the water. She went back through the trees and followed Elliot into their hut.

The hut was fairly big for an area that looked so small from the outside. When they first walked in, they were in the small kitchen, which was attached to a sitting room which had a couch and a coffee table. They walked into the only hall, which was narrow. There was a small bedroom with one queen-sized bed, similar to the one on their ship. Attached to the bedroom was a small bathroom which contained only a tiny sink, toilet, and shower; no bath.

Elliot put his stuff down on the bed, and Olivia did the same. Then she pulled out her swimsuit and the slip that went over it, and went to the bathroom to put it on. When she came out, Elliot went in and changed into his new clothes too; he came out wearing swim trunks and a t-shirt.

"Hey, El?"

"Hm?" he grunted, looking at her as he stuffed his dirty clothes into his bag.

"I was thinking...Maybe we could stay here for three days, until the day when the ship is supposed to take off again. Then Cragen could come get us on the third day, instead of tomorrow night. Does that sound all right?"

Elliot nodded. "Yeah, that's a good idea. Then we can have three more days to relax. A month is too much, but tomorrow night is a little too soon," he said, grinning.

Olivia was silent a minute, and then put on her sandals. Elliot did the same.

"Let's go to the beach," Olivia said, grabbing a couple towels.

Elliot smiled in agreement and started towards the door. They simply walked through the trees next to their hut and they found themselves standing on a beautiful beach. The weather was so perfect too. The wind was blowing gently, just enough to keep them from getting hot. But it was definitely still warm enough for them to swim. Olivia took off her sandals and dress so she was standing in her bathing suit only, and Elliot also stripped until he was in just his swim trunks.

Olivia ran out to the beach, Elliot following her until they were splashing into the water. She disappeared underwater for a minute and grabbed his hand when she came up.

"Look," she said, holding up a starfish. Elliot grinned and touched its rough outside coating. Olivia was holding it carefully; she didn't know how starfish worked, but if it could sting her then she certainly wanted to prevent it if she could. She set it back down and steered clear of it in order not to step on it. Elliot went underwater and Olivia did too. The water was crystal clear; Elliot could see Olivia almost as well as he could see her above water. He noticed that there were a lot of fish around here. It was kind of creepy, they kept sliding past him and touching him. He was getting a little dodgy of the fish, he didn't like the slimy feeling of them.

After swimming for several minutes, Olivia went back onto the beach. Elliot followed her. They both spread out their towels and laid down on them. They were both still really wet, but the wind was drying them fairly fast. Olivia looked over at Elliot for a minute. Then he pulled her wet body to his and kissed her passionately, his hands grazing her smooth, wet skin. She pulled back for a minute and looked at him.

"Elliot...I want to tell you something."

He stared at her. "Yeah?"

She nodded. "Mhmm. I...I don't want this to be a one-time thing." Olivia thought she was being considerably brave, telling him this, because she wasn't sure if he would agree with her. "I don't want to stop this when we go back to New York, El," she said.

Elliot put his hand on her stomach. "I don't want this to be a one-time thing either, Liv. I want to be with you seriously, I want a real relationship. I want to live with you," he replied.

She searched his eyes. "That's good, because...I'm really serious about this. You know I don't just kiss you because I feel like it. I kiss you because I love you. I really love you, Elliot."

He kissed her quickly because he couldn't resist the urge to. "I love you too, Olivia. _Really_. I don't think this is a joke either. I will still want to be with you when we get back to New York. I _always_ want to be with you."

Olivia's face remained serious for a minute, and then she smiled. "Good," she said, kissing him for a long time.

Olivia was so relieved when Elliot had agreed with her that they were going to be in a serious relationship, and this wasn't just going to be a one-time friends with benefits type of thing. She loved him. She had loved him for quite some time, and sadly enough, it had taken some time on a cruise ship with him for her to get the courage to act on her feelings. The tension had been building up for years now. Their love was like **a sinking ship**; their ship had sunk further and further over the years, and now it finally had the pleasure of resting on the bottom of the ocean. It didn't have to float along anymore and struggle to stay above water, struggle to maintain its safety. They didn't have to be safe anymore; they had sunk underwater and now they were in love, and the thought of trying to get back above water was now ridiculous and hopeless.

She eventually pulled back and stood up. He stood up too, and they both started getting their clothes back on over their swimsuits.

They went back into their hut, putting down their towels.

"Where do you want to go now?" Olivia asked.

Elliot grabbed his map off of the bed and showed it to her. His eyes focused on one small destination, whereas Olivia was searching the whole map.

"I know where we'll go," he said, putting the map back on the bed.

Olivia furrowed her eyebrows. "Where?"

He grinned. "You'll see," he said.

She grinned and followed him out the door, wondering where he would take her. She followed him everywhere, because it seemed like he knew exactly where he was going. He led her through the trees and out onto the beach behind them. Then they went to the end of the beach and into another forest. They walked for a seemingly long time until they reached a small building. Elliot walked through it, Olivia following him, and then they went out the back doors. Once they got outside of the building, Olivia grinned as she looked around. They were on a deck. Elliot walked out on the deck until he reached a circular area, where a woman was standing wearing a shirt with an odd logo on it.

She whistled loudly, and Olivia tried to hold back a gasp as several dolphins approached them, thrashing around in the water.

Olivia looked over at Elliot, grinning at him, pretty pleased with this surprise. Elliot smiled back at her and looked at the woman who had whistled to the dolphins.

"You can go ahead and get in if you'd like," she said, smiling at them.

They both took off their sandals and clothes, staying in just their swimsuits, and hopped in. Olivia looked at the dolphins for a minute, wondering what to do.

"Just grab a hold of their fins and go. Be gentle and everything will be fine," the woman assisting them explained.

Olivia grabbed a dolphin's fin and Elliot followed her lead, and the dolphins immediately started swimming, dragging the two of them with them. Olivia tried not to squeal when she felt a fish brush by her leg.

They swam really far out into the ocean, so far away from the deck that they couldn't see it anymore. The dolphins swam so fast that they couldn't pay attention to each other, so Elliot didn't notice at all when Olivia accidentally let go of her dolphin's fin. The dolphin continued to swim forward, and Olivia found herself alone in the middle of the ocean. She couldn't see Elliot or the dolphins anymore, and everywhere she looked there was just water. She didn't see any land or any people anywhere. She was stuck somewhere far away from civilization.

_Don't panic, Olivia,_ she thought. _Everything's fine. Except it kind of sucks that you're stuck in the middle of an ocean with no land nearby._

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><p><em><strong><strong>_**AN: Review for me guys! Thanks! Oh, and did y'all catch that part where I showed y'all why this story is named "A Sinking Ship"? I hope y'all understood that, sometimes my mind just thinks of this cool thought but when I try to explain it, people don't get it. Lol. Anyway, review! I appreciate the ones I had last time! Thx!**


	11. Chapter 11

**AN: Slow update, yes, I know. Sorry, guys. School sucks.**

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><p>"Elliot!" Olivia screamed his name, hoping he could maybe, somehow, hear her through the thrashing waves and the obvious distance. She didn't see anybody near her...What would she do if Elliot didn't hear her? She could swim back, but would she make it back without collapsing or becoming too tired? The dolphins had taken them so far out, Olivia just wasn't sure if she would be able to make it back.<p>

"Elliot! Elliot, can you hear me?" she yelled as loud as her voice could reach. She received the unpleasant answer of absolutely nothing other than the waves getting seemingly louder.

After yelling Elliot's name for several minutes, Olivia realized that he wasn't going to hear her. She was going to have to stop wasting her time and energy screaming and use it to get as close to land as possible.

Olivia had been lost for so long that she could no longer tell what direction she was swimming in or where she came from. The deck she'd been on could be behind her or it could be in front of her...She hadn't any idea. She wasn't sure where she should go, but she might as well start swimming _somewhere._ Almost anywhere was better than the middle of the ocean.

Olivia swam underwater because it was the most fast way she knew how to swim and she wasted less energy when than when swimming above water. She called Elliot's name several times when she came up for air, but she depressingly received no response.

After swimming for about forty-five minutes straight, Olivia lost hope. She tried to continue swimming, but she was just so tired and she didn't think she was getting anywhere. Her legs had started hurting very badly after about twenty minutes and she had started to use just her arms to move herself along, but now her arms were exhausted as well. her whole body felt like jello. It seemed heavy and unstable; she had trouble moving. Somehow, though, when she was planning on giving up after about five more minutes of swimming, Olivia spotted an island. It was small, she could tell just by looking at it. Well, an island couldn't be _really _small or anything, but for an island, it looked fairly small compared to the ones she'd visited so far.

The island, which was cluttered with trees galore, wasn't really very far away from Olivia. The problem was that right now, anything seemed extremely far away from her. She was so exhausted, she just didn't think she'd make it very far. The island looked so far away. Olivia's eyes were blinded from exhaustion and dying effort. All she could see now was water everywhere, and she just wanted to stop.

_Stop thinking like this, Olivia! Go! You can do this! Don't you ever want to see Elliot again? Don't you want to have a real relationship with him like you've kept telling yourself you will? You can do this! Swim, Olivia, swim,_ she told herself.

She used her last dripping ounce of energy to push her arms out in front of her and make a quick dive underwater, pushing herself forward against the waves' fighting opposition towards her. She thrusted her arms back and forth, forcing herself to keep going even though she felt like someone had dismembered her limbs from her body. After what seemed like an incredibly long, painful time, Olivia felt the relievingly familiar convergence of her feet and the wet sand of the land. She looked ahead of her and saw the island, which was no longer as far as she'd thought it was. She allowed her feet to sink into the sand, stepping on several shells as the molded-together grains of sand burst through the cracks of her toes. This feeling was satisfaction. She was on land. She was going to live.

When she had walked far enough that the water was now only up to her ankles, she sat down. She couldn't take this anymore. She had to rest now. She had overdone herself. She really hadn't been able to swim all the way to this island or walk up to the beach, but some kind of miracle had happened that made it possible for her. But now she _had _to rest. She couldn't stand it. She laid down, her legs feeling so weak that she could barely feel them anymore. Seemingly the second her head plunged into the soft white sand, her consciousness drifted away into a distasteful but incredibly relieving sleep.

When Olivia woke up, it was dark outside. She rolled over and started to stand up, but quickly realized that she was too exhausted to do so. She grunted in physical exhaustion and tried once again, slower this time, to stand up. She was successful, but her legs were aching to the extreme. She couldn't believe that this had happened. First of all, why had that idiot dolphin lady just let them leave? They had went out into the ocean without a phone (obviously), and without any protection of any sort. Yeah, the dolphins were trained to take them back to the deck, but what happened if they let go?

Olivia tried to blame this mess on the dolphin trainer, but she quickly realized that it was still her fault. Normal people didn't let go of the dolphins, and when they did, they usually found a way to catch up to them. Not Olivia, though. She had screwed up to the extreme, and now she was paying for it.

She slowly turned away from the water and stared forward at the trees of the island. She wondered if anybody was here. The island was tiny, so there was a good chance it was deserted. But what would happen if it was deserted? Would she just be here alone on this island.

Olivia now started to panic more. Her heart raced with anxiety about whether or not she would get off of this island, whether or not she'd see Elliot again. She suddenly heard a noise, far in the distance. She turned around and looked out over the water. She didn't see anything, but the noise got louder and louder. It was coming towards her. She squinted and spotted a light. It was a small light, but it was getting closer and closer. Eventually, she realized that the loud noise was a motor; it was the motor to a boat! A motorboat! She was getting off of this stupid island after all!

She ran forward, as much as it hurt her legs, splashing into the thrashing waves. As the boat got closer, Olivia began to see Elliot's familiar face. She was so happy that she simply couldn't hold it in, and she didn't bother to. Subtle tears streamed down her face, small in quantity and not affecting her facial expression much. The motorboat stopped when it reached the island she was on, and she watched as Elliot hopped off and ran towards her in the dark, wrapping his arms around her immediately.

He didn't say anything; he was just glad to have her with him. He ran his fingers through her sandy, dirty hair and felt her tears stream into the peak of his neck. He gently stroked her face and led her to the boat, not bothering to talk until they were sitting safely on the boat with the dolphin trainer, who was staring sympathetically at the two of them.

"Are you okay?" Elliot asked, releasing a shaky breath of air.

Olivia wiped her eyes quickly. She wanted to kiss him but decided not to in front of the trainer. "I'm, uh...I'm fine. Let's just go, El. I'll talk about it when we get back," she said, giving him a small smile to let him know she wasn't mad and she would be all right.

Elliot nodded and put his arm around her, pulling her cold, bare body into his warmth as the loud boat roared away from the island.

When they got back to the deck, Olivia noticed the two dolphins they'd been with swimming around in a large pin of water used for the park. Why couldn't they just have swam in that pin? That would have been just as fun for Olivia, and a hell of a lot more safe. As much as the idea seemed better, though, Olivia realized while staring at the pin that it really wouldn't have been quite as much fun as going out into the ocean with the dolphins. The pin was big, but it wasn't quite big enough. Still, though, she'd much rather have hung out in the pin with the dolphins than go out into the ocean and get stuck on an island until two in the morning.

The walk back to their hut was fairly quiet. Elliot wanted to ask Olivia a million different questions, but he knew she'd talk when she was ready. She was staying completely silent, so obviously she wasn't in the mood to talk. As much as Elliot wanted to hear her story, he kept his mouth selflessly shut because he certainly didn't want to upset her. She definitely didn't deserve it after the shit she'd been through lately.

When they finally arrived at the hut, the first thing Olivia did was take a shower. She took a while, but Elliot knew she would because she was really messed up and she needed the comfort of a shower. Afterwards, she walked into the room and silently looked at Elliot.

She walked up to him and kissed him, holding the kiss for a long time. She pulled back for breath and then kissed him one more soft, sweet time.

"Thanks for coming. I know it was really late, I'm sorry you had to stay out for so long looking for my dumb ass," Olivia said, chuckling.

Elliot couldn't laugh at her joke. He kind of tried, but the situation just wasn't funny in the least.

"You're not a dumb ass. You made a mistake. It was an accident. It wasn't even really your fault, Liv. And thanks for coming? What, did you expect me to leave you wherever you were? I looked all around the waters and didn't see you, and then we saw that island. Do you really think I would have just left, not knowing where you were-"

Olivia interrupted him."Well, I mean, it was really late and-"

"But it wasn't like I'd be able to sleep anyway!" Elliot exclaimed.

She snapped her mouth shut and stared blankly at him, her face contorted in an expression of sadness but respect for him. She wasn't sure what to say, so she just didn't reply.

After a few minutes of silence, Elliot started in with his worrying.

"Are you feeling okay?" he asked first.

"Yeah, my body's just tired," Olivia replied.

"Are you hungry?"

Olivia stared at him for a minute. She hadn't even thought about food, but now that it came to mind, she realized that she was starving. She had noticed her stomach growling at one part in the night, but with everything going on, she definitely hadn't noticed it at all.

"Actually, yeah," she said. "I'm starving." She walked into the kitchen and Elliot quickly got her something to eat, avoiding using the stove. She ate a lot but was full before she actually ate everything he'd offered her. When she was full, she left the kitchen, Elliot following her.

She went to the bedroom and immediately climbed into bed. She wasn't really tired because she'd slept so much on the island, but she knew that Elliot would definitely be tired by now. Plus, even though she wasn't mentally tired, she was definitely physically tired. She may not actually lose her consciousness tonight, but what mattered was that she needed to be laying down and resting her aching, numb muscles.

Elliot climbed into bed with her, not getting close to her at first.

After a few minutes of silence, Olivia decided she needed to talk. She just wanted to get a couple words out of Elliot before he fell asleep.

"So, um...Did you know that there were any islands out there? Did you know I was on one of them when you were looking for me?"

Elliot stayed completely silent. Olivia wondered if he was asleep, but her mental question was answered when he rolled over to face her. It turned out that he had just taken a long time to answer her because he had begun to tear up.

"I...I didn't. I thought you were probably...dead," he said, his voice dropping to a painful whisper on the last harsh word.

Olivia tried not to let tears gather in her eyes too. "I almost was, but...I kept going because I had to make sure I got to see you again," she said, setting her hands gently on his chest.

Elliot felt the tears coming on fast now. He wasn't really going to cry, was he? _Don't cry, don't cry, please to cry, Stabler_, he told himself. Too bad. As a few tears started splashing onto his cheeks, Elliot pulled Olivia close to him and let his tears drop into her already-wet hair.

Olivia didn't even know what to do. She was overwhelmed by the sight of Elliot crying over _her_.

"Don't cry, El," she said, pulling back enough that she could look at him. She gently set her hand on his cheek, wiping away his tears. But they kept flowing out of his eyes, more and more until she found herself using both hands to wipe away the salty drops of pain.

"Elliot, it's okay. I'm right here. You saved me," Olivia comforted him.

Elliot had finally stopped crying but still had an extremely upset expression on his face.

"I never want to lose you, Liv. Just the thought that I _might_ have was the worst nightmare," he said.

She kissed him gently. "I'm right here, El. I always will be."

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><p><strong>AN: Thanks for reading! Review for me please! Thank y'all! (:<strong>


	12. Chapter 12

**AN: I'm so sorry for the slow update! School blows, guys. Lol. I keep saying that. Sorry! **

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><p>"Hey, El? Are you awake?"<p>

Elliot's eyes were half-open, so Olivia couldn't really tell if he was awake or not.

He opened his eyes wider and grinned at her. She grinned back and kissed him eagerly.

"Good morning to you too," Elliot said, smiling widely.

She kissed him once more and gently pulled on his hand. He got up and walked with her into the hut's kitchen, where a couple take-out boxes were sitting on the counter.

"I got some breakfast this morning while you were asleep, and I also washed our clothes," she said.

Elliot nodded. "Thanks. Yum," he said, opening his box and getting silverware.

After breakfast, Elliot got a phone call from Cragen. Before answering, he confirmed the plan with Olivia.

"Do we want to stay here for a couple more days, or do we want to go home tonight?" he asked.

Olivia searched his eyes. "I...I don't know. We've already done a lot of the stuff there is to do, why don't we just leave tonight? I'm kind of starting to miss New York actually," she said.

Elliot nodded in agreement. He finally picked up the phone and talked to Cragen for a few minutes, telling him where he could land the helicopter tonight and making plans to meet him there with Gabriel.

When he got off of the phone, Elliot looked at Olivia for a minute.

"So this is our last day here," she said, staring at him.

"Yeah."

She grinned. "I'll miss it, but I also miss New York," she said.

"Me too," Elliot agreed. "So what do you want to do today until we get ready to leave?"

Olivia thought for a minute, and then went into the bedroom and brought out their map. She was staring at it as she walked into the kitchen and sat down beside Elliot.

"Well, we aren't far from Thunderball Grotto," she commented.

"What's that?" Elliot asked.

"It's a cave," she said.

His eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"I mean, it's not _just_ a cave. It's a cave that has fish and...swimming pigs...?" Olivia said, staring at the map intently.

Elliot raised an eyebrow. "Um...Are you sure you're all right after last night? Maybe you swallowed too much sea water or something, Liv."

Olivia chuckled but shook her head. "No, look. The map says that it's known for swimming pigs, El," she insisted, pointing at the information bubble on the paper.

Elliot leaned in and looked at what she was indicating. Sure enough, it clearly stated: _Underwater cave known for swimming pigs and many species of fish. _

"Do you want to go?" Olivia asked.

He nodded. "Sure. But are you sure you're going to want to swim? I thought you were really hurting."

Olivia looked at him. "Yeah, I am...But I mean, it's our last day here, and..."

"But Liv, you know this is just going to be a lot of swimming," Elliot protested.

"Yeah, that's okay. I want to," she insisted.

"Are you _sure_ this is a good idea? We could just go hang out on the beach or something. I've seen the way you're slumping around, barely even walking. You're exhausted, just admit it. I don't think we should go into high tides after what happened last night," he said.

Olivia thought about this for a long while and finally realized that he was right. She shouldn't do this. She would be so tired, she wouldn't even have the strength to climb into the helicopter when Cragen arrived. Maybe they should just relax on the beach like Elliot had suggested.

"Okay, I guess you're right. I'm pretty tired," Olivia finally relented.

Elliot nodded and went into the bedroom. He came out a minute later with his sandals and swim trunks on. Olivia grinned and went into the bedroom like he had, and came back out with her swimsuit on as well, with some clothes on over it.

Elliot took the lead, heading out of the hut and cutting through the shortcut onto the beach. Olivia followed him, the breeze hitting her and making her feel refreshed. She ran and caught up with Elliot, grabbing him around his torso playfully. He, not so playfully, hugged her close to him and kissed her shiny brown hair, which was fluttering and shining brightly in the sun.  
>They spent most of the day on the beach; it wasn't hard to spend time there. They made sand castles (well, they attmepted anyway), they swam, collected shells, and just hung out on the beach. It seemed like they could spend endless time on the beach, because of the beach's simple essence of happiness, relaxation, and beauty.<p>

After being at the beach all day, it was 5:00 p.m. when Elliot and Olivia went back to their tiki hut. They both took showers and got ready to meet Cragen. When exiting their hut, Olivia turned and looked at Elliot.

"We need to go get Gabriel from the ship's security," she said.

Elliot nodded. "The ship isn't far from here, I remember how to get there," he said.

They started walking and arrived at the ship quickly, going in and getting straight to the security office. They picked up Gabriel without any complications, aside from him glaring at Elliot and looking at Olivia with "pervert" written in his eyes. Elliot was somewhat sickened and tried to keep Gabriel from seeing Olivia much.

They both walked with Gabriel to an open area used to land planes. It wasn't far from the ship, thankfully, because it would have really been unfortunate to have to walk very far when holding Gabriel. After they got there, Olivia looked around. It was really just an open, blank concrete area where she knew Cragen would be landing soon.

After about ten minutes of standing around with Gabriel, the obnoxiously loud sound of the helicopter approached their anxious ears, getting louder and louder as it lowered to the ground next to them. When it landed, Cragen stepped out carefully and met up with Elliot and Olivia.

They shoved Gabriel into the helicopter, which was a specially-made helicopter for instances like this, which involved prisoners. There was a small seat in the back with bars around it; it was basically like a cop car except...well, it wasn't a car.

Olivia could tell that Cragen was glad to see them. He tried not to show it, but she could see that look on his face, in his eyes, that revealed his happiness.

"It's been awhile," he said.

Elliot chuckled and climbed into the helicopter. Cragen paid close attention when he held out his hand and Olivia grabbed it, getting pulled into the helicopter. He watched as Elliot got Olivia inside and put a hand around her waist protectively. What was going on here? Were they usually like this?

Olivia quickly noticed Cragen looking at them and she slapped Elliot's hand off of her. Cragen shook his head subtlely and climbed into the helicopter as well, sitting in the front next to the driver.

The ride back to New York wasn't short by any means, whether they were in a helicopter or not. It was hours. Cragen fell asleep by the time they were about halfway there, which was a relief to Olivia. She turned to Elliot, who was starting to doze off but was still somewhat conscious. He looked so handsome with his eyes halfway shut like that, looking all sleepy. She couldn't help but grin. She put her hand on his neck and kissed him gently. He opened his eyes further and smiled at her, kissing her back. He took notice of Cragen, who was sound asleep. _Good,_ he thought.

Olivia kissed him once more and then looked at him seriously. "El, I can barely go a couple hours without coming onto you," she said.

Elliot grinned. "Me too," he agreed.

Olivia saw that he didn't understand what she was saying. "My point is...How are we going to work together like this? I can't hide it all the time, Elliot. I want you _all the time_."

He looked at her sympathetically. "We do most of our work alone. It'll be fine, Liv. When we're catching perps, going to interview victims, stuff like that...we're always alone. We can do what we want," he said, holding her around the waist and patting her thigh.

She thought about it for a minute and realized he was right. They were always together, and they were alone a lot. It would be fine. They would live together anyway, so...wait, they'd live together, right?

"So, um..."

"What?" Elliot asked, looking at her intensely, knowing she was going to say something significant.

"Well, I...I have an idea, but you know, if you don't think it's-"

"Try me, Liv," he interrupted, smiling at her.

She stared at him for a minute, drawing a breath and releasing it when she spoke so her words came out a sigh. "I want to go home with you every night."

Elliot laughed. "I hope you do, 'cause you're going to," he said, grinning. "My apartment or yours?"

She furrowed her eyebrows. "I don't know," she said. "Yours would probably be better...too many people know where I live."

He nodded. "Okay," he agreed, kissing her once.

They talked a little longer, but eventually Olivia fell asleep. She had a long and peaceful sleep on Elliot's shoulder, and when she awoke, they were in New York.

Finally. They were home.

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><p><strong>AN: Hey. You know what you should do for me? You know what would make my night? If you would review pretty freaking boofacery please. (: Thank you lovelies. :P<strong>


	13. Chapter 13

** AN: Thank you guys for the glorious reviews(:**

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><p>The not-so-fresh air of New York had never smelled better to Elliot and Olivia. As they walked into a parking garage close to where the helicopter landed, Cragen noticed Elliot and Olivia being especially talkative and giggly. Elliot would say something and Olivia would laugh like Cragen had never heard before.<p>

When they got back to the precinct, it was about 11:00 p.m. Nobody was there, so Cragen approached their desks, where Elliot was sitting at his and Olivia was sitting _on_ Elliot's, blabbing away to him. They both looked up when Cragen came up to them.

"I need to talk to you two," he said.

Olivia stared at him with wide eyes, wondering if he knew about her and Elliot.

"I'm not sure what happened on that cruise, but I need you two to remember that you are _coworkers, _and nothing more. Is something going on that you guys haven't told me about?" he interrogated, staring them down.

Elliot glanced over at Olivia and she made eye contact with him. She wasn't sure what she should say, but Elliot wasn't either, so they just stayed silent for a moment. Finally, Elliot spoke.

"Um...If there was, what would happen?" he asked, knowing that it was obvious by now that he and Olivia was together.

Cragen looked at the two of them for a minute, and then sighed knowingly. "It would depend on how good you are at hiding it," he said finally, staring them down.

Elliot grinned. "Thank you. Nobody has to know about this."

"If you two act like you have been in front of me, then everyone is bound on finding out. So you better keep it quiet, you hear me? If someone finds out about the two of you and knows that I didn't do anything about it, then not only will you two be in trouble, but I will too. I'll be in more trouble than you. So you better stay _silent_. At work, you need to go back to how you were before this whole cruise ship thing. I mean it. If you don't, then I'll have to stop with cutting you slack and enforce what I'm actually supposed to do; I'll have to move you to different divisions," Cragen preached.

Olivia smiled at him. "We'll be careful. We promise," she said, glancing at Elliot, who nodded in agreement.

Cragen nodded, released a long breath of air, and gave them both a look of exasperation. "Go home," he said finally, chuckling.

They got up quickly without protesting and started out the door, Olivia glancing one more time at Cragen gratefully as they left.

The car ride home was filled with laughter and discussion about their long, fun vacation. "What was your favorite part of it all?" Olivia asked.

Elliot grabbed her hand. "Hmm. That's a hard one. Just kidding. _Definitely _sex on the beach."

Olivia laughed. "That wasn't part of the vacation! That was just...that was just something that could happen any time, like...like when we get home in a little while," she said, giving him a hint.

He grinned. "Yeah, or whenever we park the car," he said.

She chuckled.

"But it won't be on the beach. I'm glad our first time was on the beach," he added.

She nodded in agreement.

"What was your favorite part?" Elliot asked her.

She thought about it for a minute. "I'm really not sure. Probably the first time we relaxed on the beach, after we went horseback riding and everything," she said. "What did you hate the most?"

Elliot didn't have to think about his next words at all. "When you got lost."

Olivia nodded. "Yeah, me too. That was pretty horrible. I'm pretty sure my legs still aren't relaxed after that," she joked.

He smiled back at her.

When they arrived at Elliot's apartment, Olivia sat down with him on his couch, not feeling uncomfortable in the least at his house. She felt so relaxed with him now. She loved this feeling more than she'd ever loved anything before, this feeling of being able to do whatever she wanted around him and not worry what he'd think, because he loved her for herself. She was so glad that she could just have fun with him and not think about trying to hide her feelings or impress him or anything else. He was just with her, and she knew he would never leave her or judge her again. She could tell that he truly loved her and he wasn't going to keep her from being herself.

Elliot looked over at her and grinned. "It almost feels weird to finally have everything I could ever want," he said, putting his hand on her thigh.

Olivia smiled at him. "I know exactly how you feel," she said, laughing. She put her hand on his neck and leaned in, kissing him freely. She pulled back a little but leaned back in and kissed his nose. He chuckled and put his arms around her, kissing her again.

"So I guess we really don't have much to worry about," Olivia said. "Cragen doesn't care that we're together, and...well, we're together, which means _I_ don't have to worry about _anything_," she said.

Elliot smiled at her. "Doesn't it feel good?" he asked.

She looked him in the eyes seriously. "Yeah. It does." She paused a minute and put her hand gently on his face, running her thumb over his soft skin.

"I love you," he said, looking into her beautiful brown eyes.

Olivia smiled slightly but maintained a serious facial expression. "I love you too, El."

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><p><strong>AN: Well, I'm ending it here, guys! I mean, I think I am anyway! Give me some reviews, if you have any exciting ideas for this to continue then I will check them out and maybe use them, but I'm pretty satisfied with this as a stopping point so it would probably take a pretty good idea to change my mind!<strong>

** Please review, all of you, since this is my last chapter! I appreciate it so much! I'm looking forward to writing a new story, and I hope you all check it out and enjoy it! I'll strive to make it even better than this one! (:**

** Thanks for reading! **

** ~alliecat8697**


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